we make great success!

Clearly it didn't take very long to get back into college mode. It is 1 o clock and Cat and I just woke up. It's also been a while since I shared a double room with someone else. Everything's been great except for the fact that our washroom is down the hall, and that there's only hot water between 7 and 9 and 3 to 5 every day. We've met some pretty rad people here so far. There's been no organized meet and greets by the university so we've sort of taken it upon ourselves to socialize, creating facebook groups and knocking on people's doors guerilla style. One of our first friends was a Costa Rican who has a midwest twang picked up from university in the States. He insisted on calling Cat, Lucia because she's from Colombia, so we now call him Yoyo.
On one of our first days we tackled the biggest tourist traps in Beijing; Tiananmen Gate, and the Forbidden Kingdom. I felt like one of those yelling tour guides marching ahead, paving the way for my tourists. All I needed was a big staff with a red flag. As noone else in our group spoke Mandarin, I was their glimmering light of hope in an otherwise hopelessly vast city. Tiananmen Gate was flooded with people even though it was a biting minus 10 degrees out on the coldest day of the year.






We shuffled through the gate with the herd and proceeded past a few more gates until we got to the Forbidden Palace, the place 20 or so emperors have called home. It is called 'forbidden' because noone was allowed to enter and noone was allowed to leave, save for the emperor himself perhaps.




The number of tourists thinned out beyond the palace gates because you had to pay an entrance fee to get in. The palace itself is magnificent, massive courtyards upon massive gates. Beyond getting a feel for the size of the place, probably in direct correlation with the emperor's egos, there was nothing much else on display except for their embellished thrones and chairs. We concluded that they liked to sit a lot.



spot the frozen fish!



parents should probably not let their kids this close to me, especially if their fat and meaty







Then we went to Wangfujing, the most famous shopping area in Beijing, to get our window shopping on. The kids were captivated and engrossed by all that was on display at the food stalls down Snack Street.


yumm-o!

I bought a Mao hat and am here posing with said hat.

it's always a good idea to pose with mascots



That night we had an impromptu night out after meeting some of our new facebook friends in person. We gathered at a grad student's apartment outside campus and played Korean drinking games with Soju. None of us were Korean. They are the best ice breakers ever. Imagine sitting in a circle and screaming Bing!!! Bang!!!! Bong!!!! WAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!! while flaying your arms wildly in the air. We're all BFFs now.




Yesterday was our official Exchange Students Welcome Meeting and they brought in the head of police to brief us on the legalities of living in China for an hour. With every law, there was an accompanying anecdote that made examples of past foreign exchange students. For example, do not drink excessively, especially if you are male and have a lot of testosterone. "Last December, a foreign student from Germany drank too much, and got in a fight with a taxi driver, and later when the police came he beat up a police officer as well. He ended up in jail for 10 days." Do not engage in acts of prostitution, especially if you are foreign and female. "Last December, two foreign girls from Mongolia were found to be engaged in acts of prostitution at a bar. They were deported and black listed from border control for the next 5 years." Do not engage in gun fights. "Last December..."

Lesson learned, do not come to Tsinghua in December. I don't know if it was the worst use of two hours or the greatest two hours of my life. Me and Cat would look at eachother after each law and go Damn, you mean I CAN'T start a cult here? Shit son what am I gonna do with the guns I packed?

Oh China.

Lol, and apparently I shouldn't have taken that "Black Cab" to the health clinic the other day, since "last December" two Korean students got in one of those and got their organs removed and thrown into a ditch. Selling organs on the black market is apparantly all the rage these days. My mom called me terrified I was going to get my drink roofied for this express purpose and warned me to stay far far away from all nightlife establishments. Oh, mom.

Last night we met some more people at a dinner and went to a tiny bar that featured live music from Chinese emo punk rock bands! Totally rad. There was this Chinese guy in the bar with an AFRO, and we decided it was a good idea to ask him for a picture. Turns out he is part of a band called the Fire Balloons and Cat gave him her Ivey business card so he can tell us where their next show is.

We are going househunting today because there's only so much you can take with dictated shower times. Our dorm is also a 30 minute walk from the closest subway station as well as our classes, and we have to cab everywhere because there's no busses. It is also about the same price as renting off campus, so hopefully we can get out of here asap. Eventually we'll also have to get bicycles and then we can be true locals foreals.

Until then, zai jian!



Live update. Fire Balloon Afroman has emailed our girl Cat. We make great success!