迷失的老美

Hurray for work, it eats up all my time. It’s a good job and it’s challenging though, developing new skills that are useful which is what I am going for.

So, it’s a Friday night, I’m actually sober, and I have some time to play with Etienne and update this thing if anyone is still reading (I know some of you are, I can see you on my tracker, so HAH!)

First pics, then words.  As promised, here’s some stuff from Chen Laoshi’s visit.

Me and the Chenster

琉璃厂

Books Books Books

Post Office

狗不理

The hutongs around 地下城 have been destroyed, this really makes me sad

The toilets in the place are pretty damned nice though… reek of amonia….

But are incredibly clean!

Thanks Markie

A night at 后海 with Chen Laoshi and friends

My birthday splurge at Jenny Lou’s… yes, it’s all real… dear god, it’s all real!

My precious….

So, what am I doing now… I am relaxing for once.  I am Project Manager over at a decent company, my boss is cool, and I am finally starting my life after much procrastinating.  To the future I guess, whereever it leads me…..

Seemingly, everything has been going good since I turned 23 so far.  I know, I know, far too early in this year of life to call it all roses, but so far so good.

I landed the temp job with the Beijing Olympic company. 15 days, 9000kuai, and it’s stuff I am good at.  Runs from August 8-20.

I also just got back from an interview downtown.  Looks like I landed a real job.  I’ll be moving out of the dorms soon and starting ASAP.  I can’t wait.  The learning curve is high, but that’s how I like it.  It’s not boring, it pays well, and it has good benefits.   Can’t go into too much detail about it all because NDAs are fun things to sign.

So.. on to birthday things…. I spent the 18th wandering around the embassy area looking for a place called 婕妮璐.  I had heard so much about this little 超市, but had never bothered to take the time to get there.  Oh man oh man, have I been stupid.  The prices are cheap, and they have everything I have been wanting.  They also have things I had forgotten exist.  AIRHEADS! BABY RUTH! I was debating bringing a camera, and I didn’t.  I figured it wouldn’t be all that great, but I wish I had.  Word to all expats out here in BJ: GO THERE NOW! I got my cocoa powder for 5.8kuai, crisco, PUMPERNICKEL BREAD!!!, TURKEY!, SALAMI!, and so many other goodies.

After that, I wandered down to 王府井 to get my converter… oh how funny it was when they said that the only one in stock is broken… fuckers.  Yesterday I met up with an old old friend I had never met.  He’s going to be in BJ for the next year, and I wanted to show him around.  We hit up 中关村 and I picked up my converter for cheaper than at 王府井.  I had real hotdogs for dinner

Well, my camera is charging, I will upload pics soon.  Until then, I gotta get to sleep for work tomorrow, a new life begins

Well, here comes my 3rd birthday in a row that has been spent in Asia.  So far from home.  My presents got here on friday.  Baking powder!!!!! socks, ties, shirts, a $2 bill, and dad gave me enough to get my power converter!!!

The best though, was the cards, I don’t know why, but that was the best.  Thank you Mer for making such a great card for me, and thank you Markie for the puzzle card.

I spent today with Chen laoshi over at Beiyu and then took her from 五道口 to 望京西 on the 成铁 to meet up with a big shot over at the contemporary art compounds of 798.  In addition to 琉璃厂 and 潘家园, this was a first for me.  Been in mainland for 16 months, Beijing for about 14 months of that, and I had never been there before.  Weird.  This city is too damned big.

Chen Laoshi’s friend took us down to 后海 for dinner afterwards and it was good.  2 two students from the art college joined us and were good conversation.  I am glad I didn’t have to spend tonight alone.  This year has been one of the best of my life and also the hardest.  Here’s hoping that my 23rd year will be even better.

Thanks to all who read this, thanks to all that have helped me this year, and thank you Chen Laoshi for your unexpected, but perfectly timed stop in Beijing.

A few nights ago, Byron hopped online and said something about Chen laoshi being in Beijing.  I fired off an email and called her home to try and get contact information.  Indeed, she DID come to Beijing! She is here for a conference and is leaving on the 18th.  It’s been a long while since she has been here though, so I was forced to show her around some and have fun.  We had lunch in 王府井 at 狗不理, got her a charger for her camera, found the power adapters that I need, walked through 天安门, and went through 地下城.

北京地下城…. I am so glad that we saw this before, earlier in the year.  It is now mostly ruined.  All the hutongs leading up to it have been demolished, the village watch center is destroyed, the tunnels themselves are leaking a lot now, and tunnels which were open before are not blocked off.  The beautiful murals are either gone or covered up, and the Mao shrine has been replaced with a Buddha shrine.  Lonely Planet is to blame for this.  Before they wrote about it, the spot was unknown even to most people living arond it.  Now there are rickshaws everywhere, with annoying people harassing everyone, offering to take them there.  Pardon the language, but FUCK YOU LONELY PLANET!  YOU HAVE RUINED A GREAT PLACE AND TURNED IT INTO SHIT!

After this, we went over to 崇文门 and got off at 东直门.  I treated my favorite teacher to 巴西烤肉 for dinner

We went back to her place, dropped stuff off and then got haircuts, which I was starting to need soon as it was.  The entire day was great, I really enjoyed this surprise visit, and hope we can have some more time together before she goes back.

The only black mark on the day was on my bike.  Oh how I loathe drivers in Beijing.  Red light means STOP.  I had a GREEN light, I had had a green light for a while.  Some fuckwit on a bike-wagon decided that red lights do not apply to him, and the shitstain slammed into me.  I saw it coming, so I was able to jump off and control my bike somewhat.  I escaped with a bruised ankle and a destroyed front tire.  Fixing the bike is cheap, my bruise will heal, so I dont mind too much.  What I DO mind is that the fucker had the nerve to yell at me as if it was my fault and then ride off across traffic without even so much as stopping to see if I was ok.  I hope he gets hit by a bus one day, no tears will be shed by me.  Fucking Beijing drivers… worst in the world.

I jut got back from the longest day I have had in a long time.  The day started at 9am.  I was with a cool guy by the name of Gaby from Argentina…. let me explain.  His English is good, so the story is that he had spent a long time in the US.  My story, well… it was mostly true.  UWM wasn’t famous enough, so it became Wisconsin University (which does not exist, but was easier for them to say).  There were only 2 classes for each of us, but they were 90 minutes long… oh, and that 30 students per class thing? HAHAHAHAHA more like 300.  There was no material, no books, no plan, no air conditioning.  Freshmen in High school, but they were all 17 or 18.

The purpose of this whole thing was to get the students excited about the new semester.   Let them think that the school actually had Americans to teach them English.  In short, it was horrible, but 480块 is nice.  My first lecture was horrible, my second was much better, I’m going to leave it at that, as I am trying to forget it.

Anywho, a long trip back was interrupted by a phone call from the Olympicy job thing.  I got it.  15 days in August, 9000块 for the work.  YAY, real money again   And it’s actually resume-worthy work at that.

Etienne is still pissed at me for leaving her alone for over 24 hours, I must attend to her…