I gots friends, ya'll!

Over the weekend, the couple who live in the apartment below mine invited me down to tea. No crumpets, but they did have dried seaweed, the taste of which is growing on me. Since they both DJ as a hobby and “practice” every day, I kiiind of wanted to hate them (why no headphones, guys?), but unfortunately they were very nice. We went out to dinner with a few other people from our building, and as far as I know I didn’t embarrass myself.

The next night I played a kRazY game of LOTR Monopoly, which was actually pretty fun until I lost. Same game as the traditional version, except the pieces and properties were different and I couldn't pronounce anything because I'm not a loser and consequently never saw the trilogy. I met another neighbor, who’s a wee li’l Irishman. It’s a good thing there wasn’t any drinking involved, because I definitely would have asked about his pot o’ gold and he definitely would have punched me in the face. Everyone's been very friendly and welcoming, but I don't think I've found anyone who would enjoy shopping for pointy stilettos or cocktail dresses with me. Though on my budget I'll need a Chinese sugardaddy to take me shopping, anyway.

Number of people here who grew up within 30 km of me: 2.
The Chinese keep asking why all Americans are from the same place.

Cooking in the Chinese Kitchen

Since I can't figure out how to work my stove, I spent tonight's dinner money on wine glasses. Real classy!

Ripped from the headlines

From today's local English paper, China Daily:

-A Harmonious World in Theory and Practice (thanks to China)

-Ridding Poverty in Numbers (in China)

-Win-win Foreign Policy (China's)

And my personal favorite…
-Man on Moon Quite Possible in 15 Years!!

What could be fina, indeed!

CIEET: Day Two

It snowed today. It hasn’t snowed here this late in the season since 1951.
Yesterday it rained for the first time in almost six months, so needless to say, everyone was quite concerned about the weather and the impending apocalypse.

The Chinese who attended the college fair pretty much just wanted to know about rankings and test score minimums, so it was pretty boring.

Highlights included:
- Students who wanted information on our school's "Master's program." [singular] who had no idea what they wanted to study.
-Students who understood no English but would like to come to our school anyway.
-Students who would like to apply for our "#1 program," regardless of what this program actually is.
-Students who would like to know the demographics of our Chinese population, including M vs F. Hint: if you would like to find a Chinese husband, I suggest you stay in China.
-Students who asked very specific information about the location of our school and the weather there.
-the Mom who asked for information for her daughter, who couldn't come because she was FOUR YEARS OLD.

CIEET: Day One

The Chinese International Education… something something was a college fair held in Beijing this weekend, and I met up with a delegation from my home university to act as a representative. There was an estimated attendance of 55,000 people (over 2 days). I'll spare you the details but know that it was basically the hottest, stuffiest, smelliest, noisiest day of my life.

Goose and Duck

Tonight my aunt and uncle took me to their favorite expat pub. Some of their friends came, and there was a good band... they even let me play drums!

and then I made some German friends.

...and clearly drank too much.

What more could a girl ask for?

because I had no other plans for 6 am

This morning my aunt and I caught the flag raising ceremony at sunrise in Tiananmen Square. I figured there wouldn't be many people there, since it's a daily event, it's off-season, and we'd probably be the only people awake in Beijing. WRONG! There were already thousands of people there, all invading each other's personal space to get a good view of the flagpole. Really, the only people who could see were those in front of the pack, and I'm pretty sure I don't have enough motivation to be one of them. Maybe if there had been more dancing. It was an excuse to see the square at dawn (largest in the world, thank you), which in itself was pretty impressive, and watching the millions of Chinese soldiers disperse in formation was cool (and their coats are adorable).

Proud Party Member

Worthy of note: we were the only non-Chinese people out of the whole crowd. Everyone else was on their pilgrimage to the Center of It All. Oh, and I had my first stint of western celebritydom when a Chinese girl asked to take a picture with my aunt and me. Because why not.

For dinner tonight, we went to a Tibetan-themed vegetarian restaurant called Pure Lotus, which was like, in a mall but had an amazing ambiance once you got inside (run by monks?). Here's how they presented the meals:

big stone bowl + fruit + dry ice = Zen

The dishes were all named things like "bitter melon soup from hell" and "I love you-- no discussion." Some were much more ridiculous but of course I've now forgotten. I'm pretty sure they were supposed to be deep, not comical, but whatever.