Sunday, October 24, 2004

Tired Updates

I'm TIRED

These past week has been a blur. Went to Fragrant Gardens, where we walked two thousand steep steps to reach the peak and just in time for the sun to set and Beijing city to turn on their lights. What can I say? The view was simply awesome.

I've trying to update everyday, but time won't let me do so. My daily routine consist of waking for class, then lunch with the Filipinos, go home and take a nap, then either go to business class or play basketball. In the evenings, have dinner and then either study or run/walk at the track for an hour or so. By the time I go back home I'm so damn tired I can hardly pump enough blood to keep me alive.

This time is just an exception, but I'm hanging by a tread from a second wind. Just got back from walking two hours in the track, and I knew I just have to update my blog at least once a week, even just by writing nonsensical stuff, which I'm doing right now.
Updates before I go. Great Wall visit is in Tuesday, and the Holloween Party to set on Saturday.
I think I'm ready to die now...

State of Mind: Mindblank in ten seconds...
Song of the Day: Ni Yao De Ai by Penny Dai
Now Reading: ...nothing...
Wishing for: One day of sleep...

Monday, October 18, 2004

Why Me?

This past week has been the busiest yet ever since I came to Beijing. Had to give prepare and give a speech in Chinese, then went to Beijing Zoo last Friday, spent the day with my Language partner in Saturday, then went to church and a Russian restaurant in Sunday. In top of it all, I get the dubious privilege of handling the Holloween Party at the end of the month. Whew...

I always wonder why that I get this kinds of duties. Wherever I go, I always end up in this scenario where in just few short weeks I find myself near the top of any community or group (YFC Iloilo, YFC Makati, Beijing Pinoys etc...) without doing anything at all. I remember when I first started in YFC Iloilo that in just a span of one month of joining I find myself trust in the position of a Chapter Head. Same thing happened when I was in Manila. Now in Beijing, it's happening again. What is it about me that makes people notice my presence? Well yeah, I'm fat (I prefer husky though), loud and sometimes obnoxious but that doens't mean I'm the repository of responsibilties. Not that I'm complaining mind you but it can a man into thinking that something is going on, that something is planned out and you don't know what the next move is. Hell, you might not even know the rules or the game either...

So in any case, my load of responsibility in our little community here includes management of the Beijing_Pinoy yahoogroups, which I'm the owner and bouncer, and now, planning some sort of party that at least won't get anyone pissed off. So I'll probably play it safe: just eating, a simple program, and drinks afterward. Ay yay yay....

Going back to what happened the last week. The Zoo was nice, a really big place. I got to see the lions and tigers up close, and man were they HUGE. Probably bigger then the stories you hear. But the best part that I saw was the elephants humping and bumping uglies thing in broad daylight. Man, Papa Elephant got a 20 plus inch dick! I imagine that he must be really popular with the lady elephants, hehe.

In Saturday I spent quality time with my language partner, who I met when I missent a message to our Grand Poo-bah who runs this joint. Things happened, we met, and we agreed that I'll teach her English and she'll teach me Chinese. Nice. So we had our first study period that day and things went pretty well, as she corrected some of my pronounciations and grammer. Nothing beats when two people understand what we're learning, and since our teachers speak exclusively in Chinese, knowing what my mistakes were is a big plus.
Finally attended church this Sunday, and what a refreshing day that was. The sermon was a little preachy and the congregation a bit stiff though, but when I heard the opening bars to "Refiner's Fire" I swear I'm jolted up with enough juice to last me a week. Thank God for that.
After hearing mass, went to Wudaoku Market and bought me some ankle supports and a pair of running shoes, only costing me around 100 kuai or 800 pesos in our country. How cheap is that huh?

In any case, here's my speech last week. It's about an introdution of myself in Chinese.
Nimen hao. Renshi nimen hen gaoxing. Wo lai jieshao yi xiar. Wo chi Fei li bin liuxueshang Ai Hua, who xuexi Hanyu. Wo chi A pan de xueshang. Tamen de Laoshi Wang, wo chi pengyou Wo Ai Li he Ji Ar Di, tamen liuxueshang. Tamen dou bu shi Fei li bin ren, tamen dou Ini ren. Xiexie...

State of Mind: A blur...
Song of the Day: Flood by Jars of Clay
Now Reading: The Shining by Stephen King
Chinese Phrase of the day: Pu yao le, wo hen mang! (No, I'm very busy!!!)

Monday, October 11, 2004

Mongolia: The Eight Level Of Hell

Last week we went to Mongolia, a four day tour in hell. Frankly, I would sooner chosen to go with Dante in his travels to the seven hells.

We were a lot of us, twenty plus filipinos in one bus, so you can imagine the noise inside the vehicle. At first, we thought this is going to be fun, then things turned bad. One, our tour guide only speaks in Chinese, thus no vivid descriptions of places that we visited, nor historical tidbits to tide us over the trip. Second, the food sucks, and coming from the Philippines where food is considered an art and skill (anyone for soup no.5?), everything tastes bland and oily. Apparently, they only know how to cook goat in only one way, akin to burning an offering to the gods. While it's flattering to be considered gods, going around in a bad tummy is not my idea of a good time.

We went to Floating Temple first, and when I first stepped off the bus I felt I stepped into a freezer in Antartica. Boy, was it so cold! I think it was -8 degrees, and since winter in Beijing is around 10-15 degrees below, this is just a prelude of what the weather would be like in December. Memo to me: Buy more winter clothes.

The Temple was okay, built on the side of a mountain cliff with only steep stairs to ascend to the top. It was nice and picturesque, except the last part where one part of the structure thin walkway with a very steep 1000 feet drop straight down. Now that I don't like, having acrophobia and all. I vaguely remember crawling in the walkway in terror, gripping the railings tightly my hands turned white. All in all, it was okay but I wouldn't go back again.
Slept in a crappy hotel, then went to various temples the next day. Frankly, looking back, I think we spent most of our tour riding the bus, not spending more time in the locations.
The only great part of the trip happened in the afternoon, when we finally arrived in the desert after four hours of travel. Hiking up the dunes, riding the camel, watching the sun go down, sledding in the sand...it was a fun time for all of us. Then we slept again in some crappy hotel and awaited what the next day offered us...

The next day is supposed to be the last part of the tour, the grass plains of Mongolia. There the food was even more worse than possible, and the place where we're gonna sleep having no toilets or even heaters. So basically slept with our jackets on and went home the next day without taking a bath. Gross..

What's even more gross are the common toilets. Apparently, the Mongolians haven't heard of waterclosets, thus they also have crapping bowls or pits sometimes filled to the brim with shit. How one can sit down and add to that pile is beyond me, but the people to that there. And I pity the girls who went with us. Tsk tsk...

All in all, it was the worst tour I ever had. There are a lot of things I didn't remember because I probably blotted it out of my mind, hideous memories and such. The only thing that kept my mind straight was the fact there are a lot of Filipinos thus it was cool, and the fact I met Crazy Boo, a cute half Chinese, half Vietnamese girl who makes me stutter all the time. But that's another story.

So heed my warning: Stay away from Mongolia!

State of Mind: Flurried Frenzy
Song of the Day: Time to Fly by Ten to Five
Now waiting for: My laundry to finish...
Chinese Phrase of the Day: "Wo hen lei le" (I am very tired)

Sunday, October 10, 2004

One Month In Beijing

Finally!!!

Tommorow marks my 1st monthsary staying here in Beijing, and I can say I've accomplished pretty much during the last 30 days. When I came here, I didn't know a damn thing about the country and its people; now I think I getting there bit by bit. Going over what happened and what changed...

I finally have a pump and container for water. The first two weeks I bought water by the gallons every three days, costing me money and effort to walk two blocks to the grocery store. Now, its cheaper to have this and one of the perks is that I can have the water delivered to my room! Yay!

I'm online now!Woot!I connect to the internet using dial-up and not ever get exhausted walking two blocks lugging my laptop to the agency. Only problem is that my dial-up here is not free. Then again, the speed is like that akin to DSL, and using a phone line has never been so sweet! Rest assured starting tommorow, daily updates will start!

I now handle the directory of the Filipinos here, and I'm the moderator/owner of beijing_pinoy@yahoogroups. It's actually weird since it's my first time here, and I don't know anyone. Now the hand of fate conspires me to be what I really am: The People Person. Ah well, more friends for me then...

I now cherish my nationality even more. Where can you find a race that bonds quickly as Filipinos? We Pinoys are like pieces of a puzzle, we stick together and find our own niche in our small community. Besides, which country can boast of excessive hospitality? We share everything to everyone, regardless of race, creed or religion. We could be ambassadors to our own country (I think we already have, judging by the number of invites we doled out to non-filipinos, invites like "Come to our country, don't worry, we'll take care of everything, and you'll only to pay for the airfare and pasalubong. Everything else is ours...")

Discovered that of all the races, the Indonesians are much like us than any other. It depends though, if we're talking about the Indonesian Chinese, then it's ok. But if it's a purebred Indonesian, nevermind. From what I hear, they are lazy arrogant bastards, most likely coming from their heritage and religion, but don't quote me on that. I have yet to meet a purebred Indonesian so I'll hold out my judgement for now.

I now jog everyday! Or at least trying to. My goal is to be fit and flat-chested by December, so I can wear the clothes I want to wear but can't because of body structure. So, it's usually basketball three times a week, then after that dinner and then jog in the evening. If I won't get thin by this then there's no hope for me...

That's it. School still is hard though. Even harder if its possible. The language gets more deeper, with intonations that would make my tounge want to curl up and die. Still, I have no choice but to continue and hope to really learn the language this time.

There's still more to write down, from our Mongolia Trip to the Hunting for Thermals to Hotpot Nightout, but I still have a class tommorow, eight in the morning to be exact. At the very least I'll have something to write about everyday.

Wo hen lei le! Zai'tien!!
State of Mind: Weary
Song of the Day: Yue Liang Biao by David Tao
Now Reading: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Now looking forward to: The Weekend!!!
Finally!!!

Tommorow marks my 1st monthsary staying here in Beijing, and I can say I've accomplished pretty much during the last 30 days. When I came here, I didn't know a damn thing about the country and its people; now I think I getting there bit by bit. Going over what happened and what changed...

I finally have a pump and container for water. The first two weeks I bought water by the gallons every three days, costing me money and effort to walk two blocks to the grocery store. Now, its cheaper to have this and one of the perks is that I can have the water delivered to my room! Yay!

I'm online now!Woot!I connect to the internet using dial-up and not ever get exhausted walking two blocks lugging my laptop to the agency. Only problem is that my dial-up here is not free. Then again, the speed is like that akin to DSL, and using a phone line has never been so sweet! Rest assured starting tommorow, daily updates will start!

I now handle the directory of the Filipinos here, and I'm the moderator/owner of beijing_pinoy@yahoogroups. It's actually weird since it's my first time here, and I don't know anyone. Now the hand of fate conspires me to be what I really am: The People Person. Ah well, more friends for me then...

I now cherish my nationality even more. Where can you find a race that bonds quickly as Filipinos? We Pinoys are like pieces of a puzzle, we stick together and find our own niche in our small community. Besides, which country can boast of excessive hospitality? We share everything to everyone, regardless of race, creed or religion. We could be ambassadors to our own country (I think we already have, judging by the number of invites we doled out to non-filipinos, invites like "Come to our country, don't worry, we'll take care of everything, and you'll only to pay for the airfare and pasalubong. Everything else is ours...")

Discovered that of all the races, the Indonesians are much like us than any other. It depends though, if we're talking about the Indonesian Chinese, then it's ok. But if it's a purebred Indonesian, nevermind. From what I hear, they are lazy arrogant bastards, most likely coming from their heritage and religion, but don't quote me on that. I have yet to meet a purebred Indonesian so I'll hold out my judgement for now.

I now jog everyday! Or at least trying to. My goal is to be fit and flat-chested by December, so I can wear the clothes I want to wear but can't because of body structure. So, it's usually basketball three times a week, then after that dinner and then jog in the evening. If I won't get thin by this then there's no hope for me...

That's it. School still is hard though. Even harder if its possible. The language gets more deeper, with intonations that would make my tounge want to curl up and die. Still, I have no choice but to continue and hope to really learn the language this time.

There's still more to write down, from our Mongolia Trip to the Hunting for Thermals to Hotpot Nightout, but I still have a class tommorow, eight in the morning to be exact. At the very least I'll have something to write about everyday.

Wo hen lei le! Zai'tien!!
State of Mind: Weary
Song of the Day: Yue Liang Biao by David Tao
Now Reading: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Now looking forward to: The Weekend!!!