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| Am back in the PRC (People's Republic of China) after a month long hiatus in HK... so here's a tongue in cheek rendition of a song written by one of my favourite bands (the Beatles and their song 'Back in the USSR')...
contrary to my last post, i guess over the last couple of months my attitude to BJ has changed.. despite my frequent escapes to Hong Kong, I've settled more and more in Beijing.. and can actually see myself living here for a few years at least (not to settle long term but more than one year would be fine, if I didn't have a training contract to go to)... I guess I say that because I've built up a life here... renting an apartment instead of living in dorms now, have a circle of friends (who of course might leave at at any time this being the nature of BJ and I suppose things might change then), knowing the good restaurants and cafes and stuff around town... a good fellowship to go to... things that i guess make a place seem more like home.. and being able to speak the language a bit and communicate makes it a lot less tiring to live here..
Flew in from Hong Kong CLK
Didn't get to bed last night
On the way the paper bag was on my knee
Man, I had a dreadful flight
I'm back in the PRC...
You don't know how lucky you are, boy
Back in the PRC, yeah
Been away so long I hardly knew the place
Gee, it's good to be back home
Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case
Honey reconnect the phone
I'm back in the PRC
You don't know how lucky you are, boy
Back in the PR
Back in the PR
Back in the PRC
Well the Shanghai girls really knock me out
They leave the west behind
And Harbin girls make me sing and shout
Then Chengdu always on my my my my my my my my my mind
Oh, come on
Hu Hey Hu, hey, ah, yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm back in the PRC
You don't know how lucky you are, boys
Back in the PRC
Oh, show me round your snow peaked
mountain way out west
Take me to you daddy's farm
Let me hear you ehru's ringing out
Come and keep your comrade warm
I'm back in the PRC
Hey, You don't know how lucky you are, boy
Back in the PRC
Oh, let me tell you honey..
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| Man, its been a month since I last posted.. What has happened.. Well, after I came back from Hong Kong, we had a couple of weeks of class and then we had mid term exams; which were a lot easier than I thought they would be. Then, we had our class trip to Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai; which ended up being a sick trip. A lot of people came down with a virus including myself. I think, at least 10 out of 14 people were sick at one stage or another. It was a pretty nasty virus too with effects such as fever, headache, chill, cough, running nose, diarrohea ( for some), sore throat and exhaustion.
Anyhow, I'm off to Hong Kong again in 22 days. And then after that trip, I'll be in HK in about 4 weeks afterwards again... All these trips to Hong Kong make me wonder how much I really like Beijing; if I have to escape to HK every four to six weeks. hmm.. bu zhi dao..
Anyhow, I need to get back in the routine of studying again... Having the trip and then getting sick has just thrown me off course... Learning mandarin has in many ways been easier and harder than I thought it would be. Its definately not like studying at university and law school... when you could study at 50% concentration and though it would take longer (a lot at times), you'd finish what you had to finish.. Here, I've got to study mandarin at 100% or close to it; or else nothing is going to stick... And that is something I'm definately not used to...
Its getting really cold here too.. Its December 1 and about -4 degrees outside or something.. London didn't get this cold this quickly.. I might; just might.... consider.. getting myself a pair of funky thermals if it reaches like minus 10 or minus 15... I mean, they could be cool.. get myself a pair of black thermals that look like the tights that NBA players used to be allowed to wear... hmmm...
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| Tiredness is endemic in Hong Kong isn't it. I took a quick trip back to Hong Kong (quick in more ways than one; one movie flight,3 days in HK --> so please forgive me if I didn't contact you, it was too manic and I didn't have enough time I'm afraid) over the weekend and unfortunately *tiredness* was the vibe that I recieved. Like I've always been aware of how stressed out the population is, and I've worked summers in Hk before etc... but i guess, maybe because it was just a short trip, how tired everyone is, really struck me..
Most of the people I met or had chats on the phone were tired (and no one was above 24). I met up with a friend who works long 11/12 hour days (though its a great fulfilling job) and naturally she just was tired.. From running all over the place, from having all this information stored up in her cranium...just like my mother.. I also encountered a friend who is unemployed at the moment... mopping about at home, waiting for potential employers to call, searching the classifieds and meeting employed workers for dinner.. and she's tired... its tiring waiting for someone to call.. its tiring wondering what to do with your days before you can meet your friends who are only free for a third of your waking day...
And for someine in between; I had lunch with a friend of mine who is a teacher... though he works from 8.30 to 4ish (and then marking and all that), the guy looks well knackered... So its not an hours thing... to conversations with friends who are thinking about changing/quitting their jobs... its tiring going to work when you don't want to.... To high school and university students I chatted to, who have way too much stuff to do..
and heck, I started feeling really knackered (though that was due to lack of sleep the previous weeks I'm sure)...
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| I'm reading this book called 'The House of Dead' by Dostoyevsky and this sentence struck me a few minutes ago. The protagonist in question writes "Not to be suprised at anything was regarded as the greatest merit". Now, the circumstances of the book are of course extremely different from my situation here in Beijing. A few days ago, I passed my first month in Beijing and I can say that I'm getting a lot more settled here now simply because I'm not so surprised at things not being what I'm used to. Others have taken longer to settle down but I guess for me, I tried to lower my expectations as quickly as I could. The first day was really tough here. I had a fly in my fried rice, the first dorm I was shown was rather ghetto and yeah, things just took a lot longer than I was used to. But as time moved on, as more things became different and *went wrong*, you sort of get used to things!
And there seems to be an almost jokey competition between me and my classmates at not being suprised at the different strange things that hit different nerves in our respective bodies and minds (which is probably due to us all coming from different countries and backgrounds). For some, seeing really "China' fashion in department stores really suprises them. For others, its the occasional "yellow water" that comes out from their taps. Others find it strange that there is a form of protective internet censorship here. To some, its the abject poverty that can exist beside first world levels of wealth. For me, it was seeing the longest ever container truck I'd ever seen in my life. I saw a shorter one in Northern Ireland and it was accompanied by police cars and the road was temporarily restricted. Here, no siree! Of course, there are a few things that shock us all such as seeing lepers on the street to seeing our university avenue entrance lined up with billboards of mutilated bodies due to car crashes. And in those circumstances, competition flies out of the window....
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| Imagine this... It is the Queen's birthday (or a day to officially recognise your respective country's *birth*) and they are going to raise the Union Jack in front of Buckingham Palace when the sun rises over greyish London. How many people do you think will travel down to Buckingham Palace at 6.10AM to see the sunrise and flag raising ceremony (which incidentally lasts 20 seconds). Oh, and the underground and overground trains have not opened. You also can not drive anywhere closer than a 45 minute walking radius from Buckingham Palace.
Well, such a scenario does not exist (at least I'm not aware of it) but last Sunday I went to the Chinese variety. So yeah, having gone for a night out, we decided to stay out and head towards Tiananmen Square at around 4.45AM or so from Chaoyang district. We thought we'd just hop in a taxi and be there in 20, only for us to be stopped a few stations away due to pedestrianisation. We then hired a few pedicabs which took us for another 5 minutes and then we were on our own feet as pedicabs were forbidden from going further. At this stage, Beijing was still dark but we were seeing lots of people running with flags. And thus began a manic walk/jog/run with tens of thousands of other people to Tiananmen Square. I don't know how long it lasted. But it was definately one of the most surreal moments of my life. Running to Tiananmen Square to beat the sunrise.
There were a few bottlenecks and really crowded areas where I thought, if one person fell down, it would be so dangerous. Kids, grandparents, adults etc were pushing, running etc. I saw hats fall off and jackets hit the ground.
We never got too close to the main action. We reached the square at about 6AM. The flag was raised at 6.10AM to the music of "March of the Volunteers". The flag raising ceremony lasted for about 30 seconds. Then they let out 10,000 pigeons (at that moment, I seriously hoped the pigeons food wasn't dodgy or had a laxative in it). And that was that...... flipping heck man, it lasted 30 seconds!!!!!!!!!! Yet some people (those who got a good view of the flag) were there since 2AM. Very patriotic people!! It then took us nearly 2 hours to get back home to Wudaokao......
Definately an expierence... a crazy expierence.... Afterwards, got home, had an hours sleep before going to International Fellowship..... For a few hours, I felt as energetic as a fresher.. then at 3pm, I collapsed in my bed aching like the not so young man I am..
Though what was possibly even more surreal was about 4 hours prior at 2AM, I was in this pretty nice "discotheque" dancing to some good hard house when for some strange reason, they started playing McFly MTVs on the huge screen.......
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