Sunday, July 01, 2007
JET LAG AND DRAGONS OF COURSE
Last night I slept from 6pm til 4 am. today it was 8pm til 230am. I'm confused as to which way I'm adjusting since it's 12 hours difference.
In the morning I went to Beijing Foreign Language University to visit my friend Henry from Kunming. He is studying Arabic there and having just started Hindi as well, will be going to India for a few months. Chinese students are crazy. All they do is study and work. Maybe that's how they could learn Arabic in a year.
After lunch at the university, we proceeded to wander around Wudaokou, one of the trendier, more foreign oriented neighborhoods of Beijing. Hilarious Chinese fashion is a story for a different post. Our first stop was 7-11 to buy water. I was shocked upon entering to discover that 7-11 not only sells large quantities of liquor, but a complete dim-sum meal as well. "Of course they do," Henry replied. "They're a Hong Kong company."
Wandering through the neighborhood, I noticed a lot of signs in Korean. I asked Henry if they were from North or South Korea, as every Korean I meet in the States claims to be from the south. "Of course they are from the North," Henry replied. "South Korea is too rich."
Wandering around, Henry and I came across the Catholic Church on Wangfujing that was attended by Condaleeza Rice during her visit. Henry got very excited and said he had never been in a church, so we went in and sat down for a while. He enjoyed the church music but thought the religion as a whole was rather silly. I can't say I disagree.
Dinner was a traditional Chinese dish of sweet and sour pork and another of "Beijing-style" pork - strips of meat in a duck-type sauce. It was good, but my appetite is still off from the jetlag.
In the evening, the first group from Where There Be Dragons arrived and is staying in the same hostel as I am. I was excited to discover that Eric is one of the leaders of the trip. For those who forget who Eric is, he is the jaded Canadian who taught us some lessons in Kunming and was the origins of the phrases "there's no word for fuzzy in German, that should give you an indication of how evil they are" and "China - imagine a country where the words for logic, humor and personal space had to be imported..." That having been said, he was hilarious, and I'm glad I got to see him. I didn't know he was leading a Dragons trip and had figured that I would see him in Kunming. Instead, he is taking the Dragons group through the mountains from Xinjiang to Qinghai and back. A day later and I would have missed him. Strange coincidences.
Last night I slept from 6pm til 4 am. today it was 8pm til 230am. I'm confused as to which way I'm adjusting since it's 12 hours difference.
In the morning I went to Beijing Foreign Language University to visit my friend Henry from Kunming. He is studying Arabic there and having just started Hindi as well, will be going to India for a few months. Chinese students are crazy. All they do is study and work. Maybe that's how they could learn Arabic in a year.
After lunch at the university, we proceeded to wander around Wudaokou, one of the trendier, more foreign oriented neighborhoods of Beijing. Hilarious Chinese fashion is a story for a different post. Our first stop was 7-11 to buy water. I was shocked upon entering to discover that 7-11 not only sells large quantities of liquor, but a complete dim-sum meal as well. "Of course they do," Henry replied. "They're a Hong Kong company."
Wandering through the neighborhood, I noticed a lot of signs in Korean. I asked Henry if they were from North or South Korea, as every Korean I meet in the States claims to be from the south. "Of course they are from the North," Henry replied. "South Korea is too rich."
Wandering around, Henry and I came across the Catholic Church on Wangfujing that was attended by Condaleeza Rice during her visit. Henry got very excited and said he had never been in a church, so we went in and sat down for a while. He enjoyed the church music but thought the religion as a whole was rather silly. I can't say I disagree.
Dinner was a traditional Chinese dish of sweet and sour pork and another of "Beijing-style" pork - strips of meat in a duck-type sauce. It was good, but my appetite is still off from the jetlag.
In the evening, the first group from Where There Be Dragons arrived and is staying in the same hostel as I am. I was excited to discover that Eric is one of the leaders of the trip. For those who forget who Eric is, he is the jaded Canadian who taught us some lessons in Kunming and was the origins of the phrases "there's no word for fuzzy in German, that should give you an indication of how evil they are" and "China - imagine a country where the words for logic, humor and personal space had to be imported..." That having been said, he was hilarious, and I'm glad I got to see him. I didn't know he was leading a Dragons trip and had figured that I would see him in Kunming. Instead, he is taking the Dragons group through the mountains from Xinjiang to Qinghai and back. A day later and I would have missed him. Strange coincidences.
Labels: beijing, church, dragons, jetlag, seven eleven
