Buoy Don’t Float

6/23/06

I always think about what i’m going to blog but I never get around to actually doing it. Insetad, I end up blogging at a more inconvenient time when really there is nothing immediately pressing in my mind . It’s odd how that works. But now to try to be a daily or every-other-day blogger so that I can record this China trip. Will be approaching it like a novel. But first things first, a recap of the events leading up to me now experiencing my first day in China.

Summer was in full swing last… It was getting boring and repetitive and the only thing crossing my mind was getting out of Burbank. At that point, everyone was still in school and busy. When they got out of school, it was time for me to pack. So, didn’t see much of the Burbank Party Posse. Some things I did: midnight swim at santa monica with niko and sara, dinners with berkeley and burbank people, some intense kick ball action at emerson elementary, she wants revenge at morongos where the total cost came out to 100+, witnessed the underwear run at ucla–ucla girls are 10x hotter than berkeley girls, and went fishing with family a few times–i’ll be doing a lot more fishing hopefully, because it was fun. Uncles and cousins just talking about all the girls and being so blatantly perverted. It threw me off at first but then it just became hilarious.

That’s the end of the short summer recap.

Burbank to Berkeley, enroute to departure training at Palo Alto

Took the greyhound, sadly. Was desperately trying to get a ride to berkeley using craigslist rideshare with a zen monk from sf or a japanese exchange student in glendale. Some how they both decided they didn’t need to go up north anymore. Conspiracy. =X Greyhound ride was the same old shit. Arrived at Oakland station and asked Niko and Sara to pick me up. They took an hour and said they went to San Francisco greyhound by accident. I believed them; a harmless mistake, right?
So i waited another hour and when they arrived I jumped into the car. I said some joke and they started laughing–i admit i was suspicious when they laughed because no one really laughs at my jokes. Then they pulled out two water guns and soaked me right in the back seat, luggage in hand and everything. Hence their grins! I managed to get them back a little bit after I stole Niko’s water gun, but I got the worst of the humiliation. Revenge is now in the planning.

Berkeley to China
Public transit is a bitch!!! But I am now pro at it, so ask me! Woke up at at 5 or 6am for three days straight for training and plane flight. Very very tiring days. About 20 hours of sleep accross those three nights. It’s because I told all my summer school berkeley friends I would visit them. I think I got all of them too except Eric. Saw Niko and Sara obviosly. Stayed at Mikes for a night. Shotgunned a beer at Amandas while Niko waited outside. Carted a couch from Stebbins to Piedmont. Drank at Milad’s house with Joaquin, Dylan, Ethan, Erica, and another girl who was funny but I forgot her name. That was some interesting conversation. Highlight: You always read other peoples postcards, its not like you can avoid it; and you know what? you enjoy it too. It’s not like everyone is ever like: “Fuck I got a postcard.” That and the “character assassination” of Joaquin was fun. The last night I stayed at Alberto’s friends place in Daly City. Right when we got there after trianing in SF, we started watching TV and drinking Belvedere+cranberry. After Alberto drank 3 + 2 of mine before I could finish them, we had a shot of russian vodka and two shots of sake in less than a minute. I went to watch south park and he passed out on the table after 5 minutes. An hour later he pisses in his pants right onto the carpet. I wake him up, he mumbles and then decides to take a two hour shower. It was 3am then, and I wanted to stay awake until 5am when we had to get onto the bart. That wasn’t possible. The booze tookover and I passed out. I barely woke up at 5am (michelle called and woke me up). I found Alberto naked in the bathroom. He had overflooded the bathtub and was naked and passed out. I spent 20 minutes waking him up. Then we spent a bit of time trying to soak up the water out of the carpet that came from his two hour shower. GOOD TIMES.

June 25, Sunday
Anthony awoke at 5pm that morning. Alberto was already up watching TV. The jet lag had obviously took its toll. They attempted to resleep and failed. At 8am they decided to go for a jog-tour. Running around the ZCJM campus for a good half hour, they received lots of stares–or rather, Alberto received lots of stares. They explored the many gardens, basketball courts, and eventually found a track.

At 10am they caught up with the rest of the gang and awaited as Abby and Vicki gave an short orientation about the ins and outs of the campus. They went on a tour. Stumbled upon the anatomy building where the smell of formaldehyde was prevalent and dead bodies were scary.

Ok no more third person novel style. That is just too time consuming and I dont have enough time to just sit in the room. China is too fun.

Played soccer with my exchange partnet, David. He is cool because he came to pick us up from the airport. He seems to be the main exchange person in charge. His english is great, which has eased my communication qualms, however, he is so smart and further along in his education. I hope i can keep up with what he wants to talk about. After dinner in a little shack on “la ji je” (little garbage street), we played some more soccer on the basketball court. It was romantic–hahah–there was one light bulb off in the distance and we used a few backpacks. There we were running around playing soccer on a basketball court in the rain. After that everyone was tired; it was only 9pm. Went home, showered, tried to watch Englad vs. Ecuador but fell asleep.

June 27, Monday
Woke up around 7 to brush teeth. Had chocolate wafers for breakfast. That is a good life. Brsuhed my teeth twice because of that chocolate. Class started at 8:30am. Yep, its no holiday here. Class M-F from 830-1130; not to forget that culture exchange takes place on MWF 2-4P. Class was fun. We bought our books and learned about Yin and Yang as well as a lot of element stuff. Interesting. Yin and Yang are really poetic, or rather they make great symbols. For example, one’s back would be Yang; abdomen Yin. This is because Yang means facing the sun, like one’s back. After that class we had another banquet. Food is amazing, plentiful, and cheap. Ate duck tongue, frog, and lots of other exotic foods. Best was the fermented rice ball soup. It tastes like horchata soup. Oh and for dessert there was a brown bread bun that you scoop sweet bamboo stuff into.

After dinner Alberto and I went back to our room where we just listened to music and watched TV. I think he was playing solitaire.

Then cultural exchange. That was exhausting. Lots and lots of talking. Abby and Vicki–the coordinators; not to mention very cool and exciting folk–led us in a speed-dating-like exchange where we talked a bit about hobbies and then TCM interests. Most of the students have exames tomorrow so they couldn’t hang out with us today. Hopefully they will be up for it later this week. Or maybe even come to Hangzhou with us tomorrow evening.

After class I went straight to an electronic store to buy speakers for about 6$. Go figure, Anthony can’t live without his music (with bass of course).

Went to La Ji Je again and walked around. Bought some dinner, posters to decorate our room–aka the new “party room” now equipped with poster decorated walls and speakers. Attempting to buy stuff is really fun. We just look for we want to say in Alberto’s phrase book and point to it. I know one word: jiuge? If you point to something and say that they will tell you the price, which I usually can’t understand anyway. But it’s fun to try. Vicki also helped us bargain down the posters from 39 to 20. She is quite skilled hahah. Had some meat on a stick, dumplings, and stir fry on the spot. YUM-YUM and food coma.

Walked back and now am sitting in room with A/C and listening to Bloc Party. Resting up a bit to go to KTV (karaoke) later tonight.

June 28, Tuesday
Ended up not going to KTV. Instead we took 50 kuai from Alberto and Sky, Trang, and I went to Vangard–the market that sells American-like stuff. There we bought a 12 pack for Snow Beer which I am pretty sure we overpaid a lot for. Let’s just say Alberto didn’t get much change back. It was the best market trip ever. They didn’t sell ice so we went to the fish aisle and pointed at the ice. They bagged us a fish and we were frantically trying to say no with our hands waving like traffic controllers. Finally I picked up some ice in my hand and pointed to it. The guy helping us laughed and then led us to the back and filled up a bag with ice. Free of charge! At the line to check out, I was cut by an old lady. It was funny because I turn around and shes there like nothing happened. The Chinese tend to do that, especially in the cafeteria where cutting is part of the fun. Getting good at it now. funny thing is that in the states you would get into a fist fight over such trivial things. Outside the market, on the walk back, about a dozen rickshaw drivers were yelling at us to do something we couldn’t understand. We tried to communicate and use the phrases we’ve been remember but nothing registered with them so we just walked off in a hurry.

We played “Fuck the dealer!” and other card games while watching Italy vs. Australia. I drank way too fast and passed out. The others were just hanging out and having stinky tofu fights. (Stinky tofu is a putrid-odored tofu that when you eat it feels and smells like you are eating diarrhea. At that point you run to the sink and puke. Sky and I learned first hand when Alberto tricked us into thinking it was bacon =X )

Class was this morning. Spent a lot of time learning Chinese phrases. Way too many I won’t even talk about it here. Except that I’m exhausted, hungry, and we leave to the city, Hangzhou, soon.

On a less routine topic:
What does this trip mean to me? I asked myself this when I woke up this morning. Nothing much came out of the morning brainstorm except that I want to feel comfortable in my own skin. My progress over the last few years has been great, but i’m not there yet. Realized it lately as I try to communicate without being able to use words. Body language and ingenuity is everything.

June 28, Wednesday

After class yesterday we went into Hangzhou (the city). Found some dairy queens and swanky pizza huts. Bargaining around China is quite a battle. We were bargaining for a boat ride around West Lake. At first we asked the price and said it was too expensive. It was at 160 then. After we kept walking and walking, they kept chasing and chasing lowering their prices every time. finally we got two boats for 120 a piece. Still wasn’t worth it though since they tried to cheat us on the boat. Idiots wanted to drop us off on the other shore–good thing I’m adept at Chinese already. Hahah j/k. All I can say so far is Dou Shou Qian? which is “How much is it?”. With the world cup spirit in the air I also learned to say “Chai yo” which is the Chinese soccer cheer meaning “Add oil!” We had some very expensive, by chinese standards, eel and shrimp noodles. Taste like chicken and ramen–definitely something I can make in the states. Looking forward to going back to the city some time soon to indulge in a shopping spree of fake wallets and watches. Supposedly there is a school paid field trip there this sunday.

Today we had class; more basic TCM material and as usual, impossible to follow and harder to understand. Perhaps I should start reading the book? Went to la ji je for lunch where Alberto, Trang, and I ordered up some stirfry. That’s right, none of us speak Chinese! We pointed a bit and said “Wo shu me cuo ren” meaning we are American. They laughed and things went pretty smoothly since we ate there the night before. It’s 3 kuai for vegetarian stir fry (more than you can eat). That’s less that 50 cents in US$. Obviously, I LOVE IT HERE!!!

Had a cultural exchange session with David. He took me to his dorm room. Really cramped; it’s 4 to a room half the size of mine and Albertos. In addition, they only have one fan that spins on the ceiling and the beds are too short even for me to stretch out on. But to be honest, the conditions weren’t as bad as I pictured. He gave me a Chinese book to read for fun. Get started on that later tonight.

David is awesome. Definitely mine and probably a few others’ favorties. We played soccer with him before dinner. He also is just more willing to do stuff with us. Had dinner with him before, and he walked us to the market last time to help us get around. Very, very nice. I have a lot of sympathy for him though, because he works really hard. Busy, even by American standards. He had to translate a lot of articles for his master/tutor. On top of that, he stayed up really late the night before and he has to do some cutting and stitching for his master/tutor tomorrow. It’s hilarious, because when his master/tutor called and told him, he was really scared. Not a fan of cutting people open. He seems really stressed out because apparently he has the master/tutor known for having a short temper. Best of luck to him! Hopefully I won’t be a burden, but a comic relief/ escape person.