May 17

First day of class! Woke up early to take a walk, and found a cute river and a park.

We're in a building on the Beijing Foreign Studies University Campus. Our room is on the sixth floor, so there are lots and lots of steps. We learned about Chinese history, and then the Dean of the law school talked to us about the Chinese legal system. Everything is secondary to the Communist party, and you have to be a member in order to be anyone.
Our classroom building, and our classroom on the sixth floor

After class a group of us went to lunch with our professors at a Muslim restaurant. Our professor said that in order to work in Beijing, you have to have a permit because they don't like to have people moving to the city (avoiding outsiders), so there are about five million undocumented people here. If you don't have a permit, you don't have rights (i.e. no police, no schools, no hospital, no right to sue - if you don't get paid, you have no recourse). This is what China means when they talk about "human rights issues," not things like "freedom of speech" (which nobody in China thinks is necessary.

Tonight there was a banquet at the university with Chinese students. We met a girl who's English name is Seven who likes going shopping and going to karaoke. She doesn't like how students here are so serious - she offered to pay for karaoke once and nobody wanted to go.

Chinese telephone booths

"Yes, that's the pollution" May 16

Woke up super early, got breakfast (yellow ball things with deliciousness; white things that were just as yummy). Total price for breakfast was 18 RMB, so less than $3 each – equally cool. 

Took a cab to a flea market, which was also super cool. We got drinks at a little café that caters to westerners. I got watermelon juice for 25 RMB, which is way too much, but so it goes. The juice was freshly squeezed, so I don’t think I’ll get sick from it.

Wandered around the flea market area for a couple hours and got a cute tea set for 100 RMB. There’s Chinese writing on it, but I don’t know what it says. I also played a Chinese flute. People were trying to sell pieces of broken pottery as "antiques" - not sure who they fool or how well that works for them. People were also selling giant statues, but I'm not sure how you'd move them, because they were MASSIVE.

We met a cute baby, who was totally a ploy to get us to go into the shop. Parents here don’t put diapers on their kids, so all the baby clothes are crotchless, since the kids just do their business in the street.

Came back to the hotel, and met up with a bunch of people to get dinner. I fell asleep about 10, so I missed the midnight-one hour of no power.

Goodbye Chicago, Hello Beijing! - May 11-15

After finishing my finals on a Tuesday, finding a subletter on Thursday, and somehow managing to clean my apartment and pack everything for two months, I got my flight at 6am that Friday out of O'Hare.

Clearly, this meant I had to stay up all night to get to the airport, and my friends gave me a ride. I got to the airport somewhere around 2am, but the airport didn't open until 4am, so I hung out for a couple hours until I could check in.

I had to connect through San Francisco, and then was off on a 14-hour flight to Beijing. The kid sitting next to me told me that he was a student in Japan, but that was about all I got out of him, since he slept literally the entire flight and didn't eat, drink, or do anything other than sleep. I was pretty jealous.

The flight landed on time, at 3pm in Beijing. Customs took about an hour, and I had to go through a temperature sensing thing (which I'm not sure how it worked, since it was boiling in the airport). Customs was pretty easy, and the only long part there was waiting for my bag to arrive.

My first view of China, out the window of the plane

Our professor had some Chinese students meet us at the airport, and there were a couple other kids from my program who arrived at the same time, so we got a big van to the hotel where we were staying. The Chinese students helped us check in, and I hopped into the shower as soon as I got to my room.

Our hotel, BFSU

There were five or six guys from our program who had gotten there the day before, and I went with them to dinner around the corner from the hotel. Most meals in China are family-style and served on a lazy susan, so the boys just ordered a bunch of plates and some Chinese beer (which is awful, but so cheap that nobody cares). Dinner was delicious, and came out to 20 RMB each, or just under $3 - I love China!!

After dinner we tried to find a bar, but instead found lots of things that aren't bars, so we called it quits after a good walk.

Google Exists!

Hi all! It's been a while... google doesn't really exist in China, other than gmail, and I wasn't tech-savy enough to jump the wall while I was there. I'm in Tokyo now, then Sydney starting in a few days, and I'll start posting pictures and stories from the last month. Stay tuned!