Thursday, December 30, 2004
no day like snow day
so, like i usually was in north carolina, i am currently surprised that it is snowing. didn't even smell like it this morning, but then again, my nose is stuffy. snifffffffghglhglffffffle. cough. it was forecasted earlier this week, but no one here seemed to believe it. not even I, experienced snow dance stomper. it looks beautiful outside, but it is also cold, hence me being on the computer now, resting my hands on the campfire keys now and again, searching for warmth. i saw no other foreigners outside, a discredit to our foreignosity, but plenty of students. Down the way a bit, there is a decapitated snowman, calvin and hobbes style. the head is sitting on the sidewalk, and as i was out there taking pictures, some adults walked by the head. each one of them decided to kick the head to check its density, but it just looked to me as if they were kickin him when he was down. the snow falling is rather slushy, so the noggin withstood the density tests. perfect snowball weather, and no one seems to want to play except for those half my age. pit-e
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Braving Beijing
Monthly tests over with, monthly salary in hand, I went on a little trip up north for a bit of time encapsulating Christmas. My traveling companions: the ever lovely but slightly prickly Jena, the ever amiable but slightly aged Scott, the ever witty but slightly sardonic Jeanna, and the ever southern but more than slightly liberal-minded parents of Jena, namely, Scott and Terry Balton. Scarlet the Harlot aka Liang Lingtong was also present, schooling up in Beijing, but is not included in the list, cuz she stayed at her place the whole time and I just came to her. No traveling involved on her part. I can talk junk about her too on this blogsite, since China has effectively blocked all viewing of these sites guonei, within country. She'll never know, so, shhhhhhh. She has also told me that she's coming to Shanghai next semester and I don't want to scare off a potential city playmate, so don't tell her I rhymed her name with harlot. she'd be scandalized. never before has she ever been nicknamed something as ridiculous as that. never.
So we flew up there, cuz we're lazy. and we stayed in a nice five star hotel, cuz we can. The name of the hotel, get this, was the King Wing Hot Spring Beijing. say it aloud, it helps. even try adding a jingle to it. go on. i'll wait.
here, let me help. base beat: kingwingkingwingkingwingkingwingkingwing chorus (sounding vaguely like a female Peking Opera singer, insanely high pitched and warbly in other words): hhhhhhOOOOOOOOOooOOOooOOOooOOOOOOT! sprrrrrEEEEEEEEeeEEEEeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEngs! HOOooootSPREEEEEEEEEEEEENGS! HOoootSpreeeeengsssssz HOOOOOOOTSPREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENGzah! (birds chirping in background the whole time and a gong clashing on each pause) Beeeeeeeieieieieieieieiiiiiiiiiiiyah! JeeeeeeyeeeeyeeyeeyeeYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGAH!
i spent a little more time on that than necessary, but i think you get the idea. forgive me. anyhoo, the hotel was nice, the beds firm, the heater on, the bath water sulfur yellow. we arrived there by tour bus, a tour in which we were included at the last minute by our travel agent, along with a british family with two children (one of them whose birthday was on the 24th), one sixteen yearold girl from england, two parents, and two grandparents who live in Shanghai as well. They were spectacular tour companions and I got quite fond of rounding up the little ones from time to time. so the tour guide, kevin, a guy who always seemed to have too much spittle for his poor little mouth, rounded us up and dropped us off at the hotel.
that night, jeanne and i were exhausted, but we were waiting around for Jena's friend Hannah to arrive, for it was her last night in Beijing and they wanted to hang out. while we were waiting, jeanne and i had what i like to call, a "moment". both of us lying still on our respective beds, stock still, and giggling, for about the space of ten minutes. i think the sight of snow on the ground, lack of sleep, thinner air, and not much of a dinner reacted hilariously in our bloodstreams, sending churning rivulets of laughter to the buckwildchortle inhibitor center in our brains, reducing us to a pair of 50-cent bed vibrators. Then we went over to Jena and Scott's, tried to explain what had happened, failed, and waited for Hannah to show up and release some of her amazing energy before us. Don't know her that well, will prolly never meet her again, but she was fun to hang out with for half an hour or so. then we went to bed after i set my cel phone alarm for 8.
and low and behold, what do you know, when a cel phone vibrates it doesn't wake me up from across the room! for some reason my alarm clock on my phone was set to only vibrate upon activation. sure as a well in wyoming, that didn't wake me up one bit. i got up at 930 on the nose. did what i think must be a quintuple take, from the clock on the armoir, to my phone, to the clock, to my phone again, and then once more to the clock. gave jeanna a gentle "um, jeanne, get up, it's 930, get up, it's 930" "huh?" "it's 930, get up, it's 930" if you haven't figured it out quite yet, we were supposed to be downstairs ready to go to Badaling at 930. why no one thought to call us before then is still a mystery to this day.
i ate a piece of bread and we got on the road. first we went to the ming tombs, which were impressive in scale, but it was cold and all the kiddies wanted to do was have snowball fights, and i so desperately wanted to join in with them. but i couldn't, cuz i didn't know the family well enough at that point, and my gloves would have gotten soaked, and i was pretty sure i'd get snow down my back somehow and that's never good. so i just stood gloomily by and watched them cavort. Most of the trip I had a strong eye for architecture and archway placement, for Beijing is nothing if not a big city with a lot of gates, in more ways than one. i'm just talking about the actual physical gates. i spent a lot of time trying to imagine what it would be like to have lived in China when these building were in their original forms, and to walk through such massive structures, yearning for the light that lay within. and then sometimes i just looked at the pretty trees.
we went to a jade museum and i saw jade being cut, we went to a cloisonne shop and saw it being enameled and totally managed to not buy a thing at either of those tourist traps. pat pat pat. We ate lunch at a typical family-style chinese swivel table restaurant and i feasted, as i had not eaten that day. then we went to the wall, but the day was gray and the view was hampered by the limitations of sight. the snow on the ground made it beautiful, though, that which we could see. we climbed a goodly few number of stairs, slid back down them, and then sat in our bus writing characters on the fogged up windows until all passengers were on board. then we went to another typical family-style chinese swivel table restaurant with the same boring bland food and i feasted, as i had not eaten since lunch. then we went back to the hotel and i left to seek scarlet.
found her at her dormitory and watched some of her friends practicing for their wanhui the next night, their night party, their performance piece karaoke type get together. it was pretty lame, i must have said a hundred times, but they were all excited about it and that's all that matters. each nationality there at the school got together and did a skit. scarlet, being the only meiguoren (americano) was not included. nor did she want to be. but her indonesian friends were all hyped about it, as were the italians (one of whom is her boy Gianni, whose name she pronounces like Johnny, but calls him Mr. Bean for some godknown reason). later on I watched some people play pool, including meilin and yinga, who i hung out with later on. stayed up til about 3 chatting and then found a taxi home. it was really nice actually. i went out to the street and found two other guys waiting there, standing together. they said hello, i responded in turn, and then asked them if they too were waiting for taxis. they affirmed, asked me where i was from, conversation ensued, taxi arrived. they ushered me right in, not even listening to my poor excuse for a protest in chinese. as has been probably said before, beijingren bi shanghairen hao. beijingers are nicer than shanghainese on a whole. i've found that to be true many a time up there.
got up the next day early enough to catch brekkers in the hotel buffetrama and then settled back down for a rest. we went out later to the Tiananmen square, saluted the mao-soleum, and then walked about, shopping for a bit. i got some food, the jidanbing was excellent (an egg fried on a flat dough sliver with crunchy cake inside and some veggies and spicy sauce thrown in for good measure) but the donut thingy was terrible (looked like a crueller, but on closer inspection was a dried, unsalted pretzel wannabe which had prolly been sitting there for days. i took that one with a grain of coke). after the shopping expedition we picked up some sweets that were much better and then went back to watch some monty python on tv and await our appointed time to go see peking opera.
at 630 we left to go to the show, but i got stuck with the cab driver who had no idea where he was going. he got us to the general vicinity, but then we were late and i walked around with Jeanna and Scott(dad) in tow, asking for directions and finally getting to the place. we were expecting to see the monkey king there, but no such luck. there were some nice acrobatics and kungfu maneuvers, for sure. i loved the costumes and attention to detail in small movements and gestures. it was a hit for me. i loved it.
we left the show and found a hot pot restaurant not far away. waited for a bit and then sat down. jena splashed her dad with some of the soup and i wasn't feeling terribly hungry, but i'd say the dinner was a success. we found cabs back and called it a night. it was christmas eve, so Jena gave scott jeanne and i her present, a balton family tradition, a pajama bottom to wake up in the next morn. mine has busses and taxis all over them, i love them dearly.
next morning i woke up, went downstairs to breakfast in my pajamas and with a scarf wrapped round my neck and said merry christmas to all. it was a fine day of lollygagging and gift exchanging and such. for dinner that night we went to a xinjiang restaurant where we finnagled our way in with no reservation and just the skin on our faces. it was a fabulous meal, for 888 yuan, with all kinds of interesting dishes like ox tongue (the waiter pointed at his tongue just as i was pointing at my own skeptically) and a small little pizza (combining the taste of xinjiang nan bread with a backhome flavor). the best was yet to come though. we were about to leave, but i had to finish the beer pitcher we had in fine Byrne style. so we waited around and out comes the show. xinjiang drummin Santa and his banjo-twiddlin partner. man were they a pair. they got the place jumpin and jivin and then some dancers came out and put on an acrobatic show full of twists and hops and fancy footwork. it was great stuff, lemme tell ya. i want those two to come to all of my parties.
i left straight from there to go hang out with scarlet and give her a present i had brought. i also brought her some listerine, because for some reason she couldn't find it in beijing. odd. but then i hung out with her and her friends again until 3 am. i had some sleepless nights on that trip. which is prolly why i have a sore throat about now. hmm. cause and effect. i'll never get that straight. twas a good christmas night tho, full of card playing, movie watching, and mirth. i said goodbye to all and to all a goodnight.
on sunday we met downstairs at 1 and then went with the tour group to a lunch place. same bland food, different locale. jena and scott had just spent money on a real lunch, so they weren't too happy. i did justice to the meal for the entire table. as so open happens, i am the token eater for my team/house/family. wind me up and watch me go. strange thing is, i'm not that big of an eater, i just happen to be in the right place at the right time often enough. so i ate, and they watched me. and then we went on to the temple of heaven.
the temple of heaven is beautiful. i had been there once before, but it had been so cold that time it was hard to keep my eyes open. this time i could look around and appreciate the majesty of this once-tallest set of buildings in the heart of beijing. most of it is the color blue instead of the royal color yellow, because the emperor himself went to pray here and it had to be the color of the heavens. there was a long covered walkway there where a bunch of beijingers squatted and sat playing cards or dominos all down the length of it. it was a nice brisk day to be out and they were taking full advantage of it. i wanted to sit and watch some games, but the tour must go on. we ran through some museums with jade artifacts and musical instruments that looked as if they would play the most unearthly tunes if only i could reach them behind the barrier. there was a thin painting that stretched almost all the way around this rectangular room, depicting the long processional for the day that the emperor paid his respects to the heavens. i wanted it to be on the floor, so i could trace my finger over every soldier, musician, horseman, dignitary and watch the whole parade from the distance it was meant to be watched from, tracing the length of the work as Gloriously Bright would trace her woodgrain rivers along the floor.
i left the temple bouncy and buoyant, only to be in danger of drowning in the next moment. we went to the pearl market aka place where you can buy cheap stuff and be harassed while doing it. three floors of harassment. we were there way too long, for we were using this time to abate the inevitable drive to the airport and flight home. i would have rather waited in the airport, but obviously, that was just me. needless to say (still not quite sure why i'm saying it) i bought nothing.
the flight home was uneventful, i finished tom sawyer and listened to music. the cab ride home was overly stressful. the cabbie seemed to have foggy glasses, it was raining, and he had a habit of stepping on the gas every two seconds to maintain speed. now i'm sure my father would accuse me of the same practice, but i hope that anyone who has ever driven with me would not accuse me of driving in this fashion. scott balton said he was getting seasick and you could hear the squeak of the gas pedal each time he depressed it. just as i can hear the squeak of my spacebar each time i depress it now. annoying. and he didn't know where he was going, asked jena, she told him, and he couldn't follow directions. worse than all of my students put together. somehow we made it home and didn't choke him.
it was a grand trip, i loved it all. it didn't snow while we were there, but the snow on the ground was good enough to make some snowballs with. just today here in shanghai we saw some sleet, but i doubt that snow will ever fall and stick in this geographically liminal land. i'll let you know if it does. e
So we flew up there, cuz we're lazy. and we stayed in a nice five star hotel, cuz we can. The name of the hotel, get this, was the King Wing Hot Spring Beijing. say it aloud, it helps. even try adding a jingle to it. go on. i'll wait.
here, let me help. base beat: kingwingkingwingkingwingkingwingkingwing chorus (sounding vaguely like a female Peking Opera singer, insanely high pitched and warbly in other words): hhhhhhOOOOOOOOOooOOOooOOOooOOOOOOT! sprrrrrEEEEEEEEeeEEEEeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEngs! HOOooootSPREEEEEEEEEEEEENGS! HOoootSpreeeeengsssssz HOOOOOOOTSPREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENGzah! (birds chirping in background the whole time and a gong clashing on each pause) Beeeeeeeieieieieieieieiiiiiiiiiiiyah! JeeeeeeyeeeeyeeyeeyeeYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGAH!
i spent a little more time on that than necessary, but i think you get the idea. forgive me. anyhoo, the hotel was nice, the beds firm, the heater on, the bath water sulfur yellow. we arrived there by tour bus, a tour in which we were included at the last minute by our travel agent, along with a british family with two children (one of them whose birthday was on the 24th), one sixteen yearold girl from england, two parents, and two grandparents who live in Shanghai as well. They were spectacular tour companions and I got quite fond of rounding up the little ones from time to time. so the tour guide, kevin, a guy who always seemed to have too much spittle for his poor little mouth, rounded us up and dropped us off at the hotel.
that night, jeanne and i were exhausted, but we were waiting around for Jena's friend Hannah to arrive, for it was her last night in Beijing and they wanted to hang out. while we were waiting, jeanne and i had what i like to call, a "moment". both of us lying still on our respective beds, stock still, and giggling, for about the space of ten minutes. i think the sight of snow on the ground, lack of sleep, thinner air, and not much of a dinner reacted hilariously in our bloodstreams, sending churning rivulets of laughter to the buckwildchortle inhibitor center in our brains, reducing us to a pair of 50-cent bed vibrators. Then we went over to Jena and Scott's, tried to explain what had happened, failed, and waited for Hannah to show up and release some of her amazing energy before us. Don't know her that well, will prolly never meet her again, but she was fun to hang out with for half an hour or so. then we went to bed after i set my cel phone alarm for 8.
and low and behold, what do you know, when a cel phone vibrates it doesn't wake me up from across the room! for some reason my alarm clock on my phone was set to only vibrate upon activation. sure as a well in wyoming, that didn't wake me up one bit. i got up at 930 on the nose. did what i think must be a quintuple take, from the clock on the armoir, to my phone, to the clock, to my phone again, and then once more to the clock. gave jeanna a gentle "um, jeanne, get up, it's 930, get up, it's 930" "huh?" "it's 930, get up, it's 930" if you haven't figured it out quite yet, we were supposed to be downstairs ready to go to Badaling at 930. why no one thought to call us before then is still a mystery to this day.
i ate a piece of bread and we got on the road. first we went to the ming tombs, which were impressive in scale, but it was cold and all the kiddies wanted to do was have snowball fights, and i so desperately wanted to join in with them. but i couldn't, cuz i didn't know the family well enough at that point, and my gloves would have gotten soaked, and i was pretty sure i'd get snow down my back somehow and that's never good. so i just stood gloomily by and watched them cavort. Most of the trip I had a strong eye for architecture and archway placement, for Beijing is nothing if not a big city with a lot of gates, in more ways than one. i'm just talking about the actual physical gates. i spent a lot of time trying to imagine what it would be like to have lived in China when these building were in their original forms, and to walk through such massive structures, yearning for the light that lay within. and then sometimes i just looked at the pretty trees.
we went to a jade museum and i saw jade being cut, we went to a cloisonne shop and saw it being enameled and totally managed to not buy a thing at either of those tourist traps. pat pat pat. We ate lunch at a typical family-style chinese swivel table restaurant and i feasted, as i had not eaten that day. then we went to the wall, but the day was gray and the view was hampered by the limitations of sight. the snow on the ground made it beautiful, though, that which we could see. we climbed a goodly few number of stairs, slid back down them, and then sat in our bus writing characters on the fogged up windows until all passengers were on board. then we went to another typical family-style chinese swivel table restaurant with the same boring bland food and i feasted, as i had not eaten since lunch. then we went back to the hotel and i left to seek scarlet.
found her at her dormitory and watched some of her friends practicing for their wanhui the next night, their night party, their performance piece karaoke type get together. it was pretty lame, i must have said a hundred times, but they were all excited about it and that's all that matters. each nationality there at the school got together and did a skit. scarlet, being the only meiguoren (americano) was not included. nor did she want to be. but her indonesian friends were all hyped about it, as were the italians (one of whom is her boy Gianni, whose name she pronounces like Johnny, but calls him Mr. Bean for some godknown reason). later on I watched some people play pool, including meilin and yinga, who i hung out with later on. stayed up til about 3 chatting and then found a taxi home. it was really nice actually. i went out to the street and found two other guys waiting there, standing together. they said hello, i responded in turn, and then asked them if they too were waiting for taxis. they affirmed, asked me where i was from, conversation ensued, taxi arrived. they ushered me right in, not even listening to my poor excuse for a protest in chinese. as has been probably said before, beijingren bi shanghairen hao. beijingers are nicer than shanghainese on a whole. i've found that to be true many a time up there.
got up the next day early enough to catch brekkers in the hotel buffetrama and then settled back down for a rest. we went out later to the Tiananmen square, saluted the mao-soleum, and then walked about, shopping for a bit. i got some food, the jidanbing was excellent (an egg fried on a flat dough sliver with crunchy cake inside and some veggies and spicy sauce thrown in for good measure) but the donut thingy was terrible (looked like a crueller, but on closer inspection was a dried, unsalted pretzel wannabe which had prolly been sitting there for days. i took that one with a grain of coke). after the shopping expedition we picked up some sweets that were much better and then went back to watch some monty python on tv and await our appointed time to go see peking opera.
at 630 we left to go to the show, but i got stuck with the cab driver who had no idea where he was going. he got us to the general vicinity, but then we were late and i walked around with Jeanna and Scott(dad) in tow, asking for directions and finally getting to the place. we were expecting to see the monkey king there, but no such luck. there were some nice acrobatics and kungfu maneuvers, for sure. i loved the costumes and attention to detail in small movements and gestures. it was a hit for me. i loved it.
we left the show and found a hot pot restaurant not far away. waited for a bit and then sat down. jena splashed her dad with some of the soup and i wasn't feeling terribly hungry, but i'd say the dinner was a success. we found cabs back and called it a night. it was christmas eve, so Jena gave scott jeanne and i her present, a balton family tradition, a pajama bottom to wake up in the next morn. mine has busses and taxis all over them, i love them dearly.
next morning i woke up, went downstairs to breakfast in my pajamas and with a scarf wrapped round my neck and said merry christmas to all. it was a fine day of lollygagging and gift exchanging and such. for dinner that night we went to a xinjiang restaurant where we finnagled our way in with no reservation and just the skin on our faces. it was a fabulous meal, for 888 yuan, with all kinds of interesting dishes like ox tongue (the waiter pointed at his tongue just as i was pointing at my own skeptically) and a small little pizza (combining the taste of xinjiang nan bread with a backhome flavor). the best was yet to come though. we were about to leave, but i had to finish the beer pitcher we had in fine Byrne style. so we waited around and out comes the show. xinjiang drummin Santa and his banjo-twiddlin partner. man were they a pair. they got the place jumpin and jivin and then some dancers came out and put on an acrobatic show full of twists and hops and fancy footwork. it was great stuff, lemme tell ya. i want those two to come to all of my parties.
i left straight from there to go hang out with scarlet and give her a present i had brought. i also brought her some listerine, because for some reason she couldn't find it in beijing. odd. but then i hung out with her and her friends again until 3 am. i had some sleepless nights on that trip. which is prolly why i have a sore throat about now. hmm. cause and effect. i'll never get that straight. twas a good christmas night tho, full of card playing, movie watching, and mirth. i said goodbye to all and to all a goodnight.
on sunday we met downstairs at 1 and then went with the tour group to a lunch place. same bland food, different locale. jena and scott had just spent money on a real lunch, so they weren't too happy. i did justice to the meal for the entire table. as so open happens, i am the token eater for my team/house/family. wind me up and watch me go. strange thing is, i'm not that big of an eater, i just happen to be in the right place at the right time often enough. so i ate, and they watched me. and then we went on to the temple of heaven.
the temple of heaven is beautiful. i had been there once before, but it had been so cold that time it was hard to keep my eyes open. this time i could look around and appreciate the majesty of this once-tallest set of buildings in the heart of beijing. most of it is the color blue instead of the royal color yellow, because the emperor himself went to pray here and it had to be the color of the heavens. there was a long covered walkway there where a bunch of beijingers squatted and sat playing cards or dominos all down the length of it. it was a nice brisk day to be out and they were taking full advantage of it. i wanted to sit and watch some games, but the tour must go on. we ran through some museums with jade artifacts and musical instruments that looked as if they would play the most unearthly tunes if only i could reach them behind the barrier. there was a thin painting that stretched almost all the way around this rectangular room, depicting the long processional for the day that the emperor paid his respects to the heavens. i wanted it to be on the floor, so i could trace my finger over every soldier, musician, horseman, dignitary and watch the whole parade from the distance it was meant to be watched from, tracing the length of the work as Gloriously Bright would trace her woodgrain rivers along the floor.
i left the temple bouncy and buoyant, only to be in danger of drowning in the next moment. we went to the pearl market aka place where you can buy cheap stuff and be harassed while doing it. three floors of harassment. we were there way too long, for we were using this time to abate the inevitable drive to the airport and flight home. i would have rather waited in the airport, but obviously, that was just me. needless to say (still not quite sure why i'm saying it) i bought nothing.
the flight home was uneventful, i finished tom sawyer and listened to music. the cab ride home was overly stressful. the cabbie seemed to have foggy glasses, it was raining, and he had a habit of stepping on the gas every two seconds to maintain speed. now i'm sure my father would accuse me of the same practice, but i hope that anyone who has ever driven with me would not accuse me of driving in this fashion. scott balton said he was getting seasick and you could hear the squeak of the gas pedal each time he depressed it. just as i can hear the squeak of my spacebar each time i depress it now. annoying. and he didn't know where he was going, asked jena, she told him, and he couldn't follow directions. worse than all of my students put together. somehow we made it home and didn't choke him.
it was a grand trip, i loved it all. it didn't snow while we were there, but the snow on the ground was good enough to make some snowballs with. just today here in shanghai we saw some sleet, but i doubt that snow will ever fall and stick in this geographically liminal land. i'll let you know if it does. e
