This week was better than last week now that we've gotten back into the groove of things and the end is in sight. Over the weekend we had to write a 1,200+ word "report literature" 报告文学 piece, which for me ended up being 1,700 words, but wasn't as bad as it could have been since the topic was "American high school life" and I spent the whole day amusing myself by looking words like "punk" (朋克) and "jock" (运动员). We didn't have internet over the weekend though which was annoying since it required camping out downstairs at the Nowhere Cafe and living off mango smoothies in exchange for wireless. Oh China.
Trivia Night:
Like the brunch thing, I only mention this to promote Lush and let future HBA-ers know that they have trivia night on Wednesdays, which is great for massive nerd kick-in and study breaking (once you know how to handle the workload you can motivate yourself to get things done before dinner so that you can enjoy the evening). In many ways being an expat in Asia probably beats being an expat in Europe because 1) it's significantly cheaper and 2) Asians like America. Europeans not so much. Tcha =/
Longqing Gorges 龙庆峡:
The highlight of the week hands down was Longqing Gorges, which is about 2 hours by bus from Beijing. Not only was it a nice break from the city and it's pollution, it was also satisfying for anyone with artistic interests (beautiful mountain/river scenery) and daredevil amusement park cravings (see below). In other words I was thoroughly satisfied with our last HBA excursion.
(There's an elevator inside that dragon that takes you up to the boating area).
(山水风景）
(We're supposed to be looking scared. What for?)
(Bungee jumping!!! In retrospect this was not a smart thing of me to do at all since I was planning on living to see America again, but it was SO worth it... the first drop was easily the scariest moment of my life. I went first because I didn't want the waiting to make me antsier than necessary, even if it meant emasculating the line of guys behind me. I also decided that pretending that this was nothing more than a dive into a pool would diminish the scariness -- WRONG it was absolutely terrifying going head down like that, although apparently it contributed positively to my bungee form. To top things off, after the first big drop and bounce back my shoe came off and was barely hanging off my foot, so I had to simultaneously concentrate on not passing out and not letting my shoe fall into the water until they drove up in a little boat and fished me out of the air with a stick. I'm so grateful though because klutzy things have a tendency of following me to the most inconvenient places and I still made it out successful and alive! Huzzah!)
(It's a bit small but that speck attached to the rope is supposed to be me)
(The survivors!)
(Having lunch like the locals -- shoving noodles in our faces and squatting)Thai Food and Massages:
After Longqing Gorges we treated ourselves to a Thai dinner (in honor of Yale) and massages (in honor of cheap human labor and being a spoiled American expat) because everyone should experience a one-hour full body massage in a legit place for slightly under $10 when they can. Especially in China where all the stuff about "qi" and pressure points has been in practice for thousands of years so they know what they're doing. I don't know if this is how they do it in the US but each masseuse has a number (not a name) so that you know who to ask for when you come back... personally this sketched me out a bit and I'm not going back anyway, but it was a good massage and the people were really nice (courteous service is hard to come by in China).
Flooding (more reasons why Beijing is really bizarre):
It has been raining like crazy at the most random times sporadically throughout the last two weeks. The rain itself is also crazy, because it'll thunder for a while with no rain and then suddenly there's an hour of tsunami and then it stops, leaving behind rivers in the roads since the drainage system is ghetto (like everything else in China). We were trapped by one trivia night and again today during individual tutoring class. Walking home today was quite an adventure since my flip-flops have no traction and the water was almost up to my knees. I can only imagine how much filth was floating around in that though... urgh...
(At night... it's blurry but hopefully it conveys the river effect)
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