Beijing

We just had our weekend in Beijing.

Here are the things we did:

-We visited Tiananmen Square

-We saw Mao Ze Dong's mummified body--- I can't believe they love the guy so much.
-We went into the Forbidden City (which isnt that forbidden after all)

-We then went to the Summer Palace which is a beautiful Summer retreat for Emperor's
-We then got to see some of China's treasured Beijing Opera, which actually turned out to be cool because they did some sweet acrobatic stuff.

-Then the next day we traversed the Great Wall, unfortunately it was an extremely foggy day and you couldn't see past 100 meters, otherwise I'm sure the views would have been amazing. But like they say in China, you're not a true man unless you have visited the Great Wall.

-We also got to see some of the Olympic venues-- from a far though because they do not let you near any of it. The "Bird Nest" stadium is really funky looking-- it sure lives up to its nickname.
-We also went to this tea store where they pitched us this really cool presentation to get us to buy there tea. We got to taste test a whole bunch and they taught us some tricks and cool facts about some of the teas. I ended up buying a whole bunch, my favorite being this tea cup that the picture on it transforms when you add hot water--- it's chinese magic.


Last Friday night a whole bunch of us went out to a "KTV" bar. (Karoeke). It was a whole lot of fun-- we couldnt sing any Chinese songs, but our friend Jiao serenated us with some sweet chinese tunes. They had a bunch of English songs which we all took part in belting out in perfect pitch and harmony. We had our own private room for the night and were treated like VIPS for less then 20 american dollars each.. It was awesome. We are planning a trip back there sometime this week.

We are halfway through the program. It's been an amazing experience so far and I'm sure there is more to come.

I should be able to get pictures up tomorrow-- I think I just learned how, except I forgot to bring my camera with me to the computer lab.

-Lu Jie Ti

A Little Taste of America-- Ruskie Laces up for the B-Ball Court.

Chinese classes are getting more interesting.. we are no longer using the phonetic writing system and are just using characters. It's like decoding a secret message. I know some characters and then can figure out others. But writing them is pretty hard. I think I got a pretty good handle on the tones and sounds so now its just pretty much memorization of characters with various sounds.

I found my favorite lunch so far today. Its at the local diner and its english name is "baked chicken with tea." It is tremendous. It looks like chicken served on top of potpouri and green and red peppers.

I got pepperoni pizza the other day at "Pizza Hill". It was alright. Its some knock off pizza hut type place. Their motto is cuz they have so much variety is "Can you choice one?"... that's right, Don't choose it, choice it. English spelling errors are very abundent. Chinese people find it fashionable to have english words on their clothing. Many times it is just nonsensical. My favorite so far was a sporty style t-shirt some guy was wearing that only had written in big bold letters on the front of it--- "Balls". That guy choiced well.

We just had a chinese caligraphy/painting lecture. It was interesting to see the differences in western and eastern painting. Chinese painting focus on meaning and is 2 dimensional with black and white as the major colors. Chinese characters are also part of the artwork.

This weekend we are going to Beijing to see the Great Wall, Tianamen square, some royal garden, and some other stuff. Maybe I'll be able to get some pictures up next Monday.

We still have Tai Chi everymorning.... Yup. It's slow moving and pretty boring. If you're old and in danger of breaking your hip I recommend doing it (aka Mom, Dad,..... Jen =P) We did Wu Shu one day which was pretty cool because it was fast moving and powerful-- I felt like Jet Li.

Me and Mike went and played basketball the other day with some Chinese guys. Chinese people love basketball. They were so impressed with how high I could jump. I had some sweet blocked shots against them. I told them Yao Ming aint got nothing on me.

Breakfast here sucks.... I have a yearning for International House of Pancakes for breakfast--- but i dont think its really that international. I miss freedom fries too-- ive had fries here in china but they are saturated with communism, very unhealthy. Taco Bell I'll be back soon-- Mom, Dad, tell Dominick's to mail me a buffalo chicken pizza, Thanks!


Cya later,

-Ruskie

End of Week One

The View From the Top of Mt. Tai

Ni hao!

Just finished week one.

Chinese people are everywhere!

Classes are going good. I'm learning a bunch. Still hard to get the right tones down with the words.

This past weekend we went to Shendong province which was a 5.5 hour drive away from here. We saw Confuscious and Mencius temples and hometown. The temple was interesting. It smelled like a Roman cathedrel. The town seemed kinda poor and some people just blatantly stared at me cause I was a white dude. It made for some hilarious moments. People will just randomly ask for photos with us. People worship Confusicious and Mencius much like Jesus. The temples and memorials are very elabrorate and people are always burning incense and other rituals.

Mount Tai was amazing. It is a place where Emperors used to go to worship. There are temples and also shops at the top of this Mountain. We took a cable car to almost the top then walked the rest to the summit. It takes like 5 hours to walk up all the steps to the top of the mountain that they built the ancient times. It was a beautiful day when we went. It was the first time we could see blue sky and the sun.... and it will probably be the last. The smog in china is ridiculous. Its weird cuz you can see your shadow sometimes but cannot find the sun. Skyscrapers more then a mile away are barely visible. But the pictures I have of Mt. Tai are beautiful, Im so glad we caught it on a nice day (you can only see the sunrise/set about 70 days of the year our tourguide said) so if I can learn how to upload them on here I will do so asap. The mountain smelled amazing too on the busride up because of the flowers and trees.

Me Holding Up a Piece of Mt. Tai--- I'm so strong

It is hot and muggy in China....

We had this tour guide with us the whole time named "Frank". He was hilarious cause he always said "yea shurr (sure)" to everything in a sarcastic tone, but he didnt mean it sarcistically, its just how he talked.

We went to a dance club for a little bit one night. The entire dance floor bounced up and down, which was very weird. Chinese people dance very funny. They do like some form of the twist from like the 1950s but without moving their legs. So they just rotate their upper bodies and shake their hips. THey do that or they kinda dance like cheerleaders with ridicouls arm gestures/movements.

I'm having a good time (im pretty decent with chopsticks now) and I'll try to get pictures up for ya'll but I really am not sure how.


-Ruskie

(heh i can't even read my own blog in China either, they (the Reds) are pretty good at blocking stuff, well I can read it, I just have to outsmart them, which isnt too tough-- Viva America)

First Post

Here I am sitting in China.... Cool. The flight was alright. Beijing airport was huge. It did not seem very different from America in the airport. I am amazed at how capitalistic it is here. The cities look a lot like American cities... just with Chinese people--- and a lot more bike riders. I'm sure when we go out of the cities it will be a lot different.

We do Tai Chi at 0700 in the morning until 0745. Its interesting. Its like slow moving fighting with fighting moves with strange names such as "Playing the Guitar."--- and I'm quoting the instructor here, "This is not a funny move, it will break your arm."

The food here is, uh, hmm, alright...... Let's just say it's not Italy. I mean I guess it's alright if you like Chinese food. My dad would starve to death here, or eat McDonald's everyday. They do also have Pizza Hut and apparently they love them some KFC. Good ol' fried chicken.

Chinese class is actually pretty cool. We go from 0830 to 1215 (with some 10 minute breaks in there). I think I'm going to learn a lot. We have 2 different teachers in that time block-- both of them have funny accents-- makes me laugh. The language is going to be hard to learn because of the tones. The tones make it like singing---- awesome..... Not only do you have to learn the words but also the tones and then put them in a sentence together, pretty simple eh.

Nankai University is nice. Its in the middle of the city and its pretty big. There are a bunch of other foreign students here, like some French Canadians.

This internet cafe I'm in right now is awesome-- in the funny sense. These are pretty nice computers and there is like 50 people in here on them..... a lot of them are playing WoW and other American computer games.

I'm supposed to add pictures to my blog, but I'm not that computer savy, so check out these pictures (they uploaded sideways and u might have to use ur imagination.... a lot)

<(8-P) <-- (It's a portrait of me in a traditional chinese party hat sticking out my tongue)


Ok well I hope you enjoyed that Internet world people... I did. Anyway I'm off to explore the wonderful world of the Chinese internet and then we go somewhere this weekend cool I think, like Confusious home town. Should be sweet.

Alright Bye.

Ruskie (aka Lu Jie Tei) at least i think that is my chinese name, i kinda forget it.