Busy week

Sorry, this week will be lacking in posts, we have tests coming up. I'll be studying.

Until next time

-Ben

The Olympics!

I'm guessing the Olympic Village was more interesting during the Olympics. Having a 2400 meter long 160 meter wide walkway is great, unless there's not much reason for people to be walking on it. Although it was far from a ghost town, full of tourists, mostly in-country tourists.

It didn't help things that the pollution level today was pretty high too. Trying to get clear pictures was near impossible, and with the size of the stadium, also known as bird's nest, the pollution was evident inside as well.

The architecture of the stadium is pretty interesting, but it's old, faded and rusted in parts, and generally seems uncared for. They charge for admission to walk around and see the inside concourses, and the field is large, you can get a great view of the occasional segway races held for tourists around the infield track, but other than that and videos about the olympics, there isn't much else.

There's also the water cube across the way. But during the day, it's just a blue box with weird circles on it.

The long and the short, I was unimpressed with the 'tourist' site. I don't doubt it was exciting during the event, but now it's just gathering dust, almost literally.

-Ben

The more the merrier

Today, a new student arrived in Beijing from the University of Kentucky. His name is Reid, and he's come to intern in China for a few weeks. I managed to catch up with our KEI partners as we had lunch, and helped Reid get a rundown of the campus. I'm worried about him, since he doesn't speak a lick of chinese. He should be ok, but it isn't the easiest thing to just jump into a society where your communication is troublesome. We'll be going to see the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest olympic installations tomorrow. I'll bring back pictures.

In other news, I spent a long time talking with my close friends Brandon Swanberg and Maja Fus, (separate instances) it's good to catch up with old friends. I also managed to meet up with Cherry and we talked for a good while about many things. Other than that, I spent my day studying and drafting notes for a short story I'm writing for a friend.

Apologies for the lack of big news in this post, today was uneventful, although the weather continues to be stellar,*knock on wood*.

-Ben

Another day in the life...

We started a new book in class today. Our final exam only covers our first book though, so I'll be spending the next week reviewing for that test. I've got a good freling in regards to the final.

Apparently, my study company partner thing, KEI, has a new student coming in, so I'll be meeting them tomorrow, I'll let you know.

Other than that, today was pleasent and uneventful, and the weather was very comfortable.

-Ben

Dragon Boat Festival, 端午节

Today was the Dragon Boat festival, a holiday that celebrates the suicide of an ancient poet and statesman known as QuYuan, 屈原，and also celebrates the turning of the year and such not. People eat ZongZi, specially prepared rice, and have boat races with crew teams on boats with dragon-styled prows.

I spent the morning sleeping, awakening to a phone call at noon from Crystal with an invitation to hang out for the day. We were joined by XiaoBai and spent 3 hours+ sitting in a coffee shop talking and making up stories together, it was a great time. Before everyone else arrived, I spent time perusing the bookstore nearby. When I was about to leave, a man kindly stopped me and asked me to help him find a book to learn english with. Being a bookseller at heart, I didn't hesitate to search around with him until I found a certain type of book I'd used myself which had chinese and english side-by-side.

When I got back to the dormitory, I was greeted with a wonderful sight. Enjoy,

I hope that pasted,

Ben

The simple things

People talk about the things we take for granted all the time, and I always brushed it off and said that I truly appreciated those 'simple' things. Surprisingly, that is not the case. Of course, the 'simple' things I'm about to talk about aren't very simple, but they're staples of everyday life I've come to expect. 

First and foremost is reliable internet. This was important to me before, and any kind of hiccup with my connection would irritate me, but living in China, where connections are usually slow, limited by a firewall, with infrequent connectivity, has given me a new opinion.

This opinion has multiple parts, 

First, I've learned to live without, for the most part, since internet is never assured, I've realized that the things I used it for previously were inconsequential, since I get by just fine when it isn't available. 

Second, that I really rely on the internet for certain parts of my life, like news, communication and entertainment. While in China, my access to english language news is restricted to my ipad and the internet. Or out of date magazines that have biases, like the economist. So, as a result, I've started paying more attention to news stories, after discovering the ability of an ipad or other mobile platform inaccessing it (when I have internet). 

Looking at news from a perspective outside of america gives it a vastly different tint. For example, take the recent news of PRISM, most people are concerned with it being used on domestic targets. No one seems to consider the fact that it is targetted on alien subjects, non-americans. Think about the population of the world, and realize how many people that covers. I've heard several friends scoff at the restriction of companies like google, facebook, yahoo, etc. who aren't allowed full functionality in China, those services instead served by native companies. In terms of business. It is a isolationist tendency, but when you see things like this program of spying, you begin to understand why China might want business based in China.

People sometimes wonder why America has negative publicity in other companies, without thinking about why other countries may dislike us. If you're worried about someone spying on your personal activities for no reason, imagine someone who finds out they may be surveilled simply because they aren't American. 

But it's not as if America only does negative things. I recently had a chance to talk with a man fom Serra Leone. When he spoke of the US and China, he condemned china for what he explained as a selfish approach to wealth, and praised American help in constructing hospitals and defending civilians in his country.

But to get back to the original topic,

The second thing I miss is safe food. I never really think about the safety of food in America, but just assume it is safe. Here in China, I just assume the food isn't safe. For instance, I recently bought some pineapple from the campus supermarket, and was happily munching away on the delicious, golden fruit, until I felt a weird taste in my mouth, and a sensation akin to numbing or prickling of my nerves. I immediatly stopped and looked up the safety of pesticides used with pineapples. What I found convinced me to probably never eat a pineapple again, in China, and perhaps in America as well.

The problem with pineapples isn't just that some of the pesticides used to make it juicy and golden are unsafe, it's also the effects the cultivation of the fruit have on communities and cultures. For instance, in Costa Rica, the fruit barons like Dole are still exploiting the poor, politically weak residents of Costa Rica and Nicaragua in order to produce cheap fruit. In America, how often do you think about where your food comes from? Maybe you should do some research, or look at the way the animal who's muscle you're eating is raised. Who knows what you're putting in your body?

Third, when someone tells you a price of a service, or that you can't do something, are they trustworthy? Before, I just assumed if someone said they couldn't do something, that it just wasn't possible. Now, when someone says no, I no longer think, 'ok, guess not,' I think, are they really not able, or should I ask a different way, or offer them something. Maybe I was simply too trusting before or something, but now I look at a no more as a 'for you, no.' The reason being, sometimes in China, if someone says something isn't possible, it could just be apathy speaking, and if someone who is from China comes along and asks for the same thing, and persists in asking, they get what they wanted. I don't just feel that this is a difference of culture, I think it's part of culture everywhere, to an extent.

There may be more revelations I've had during my trip, but we'll stop here for now, and see if I can get some internet in order to upload this post.

-Ben

Sleeping like the dead

I spent the majority of my Sunday sleeping, falling asleep after a very late night out and waking up late. I ate, read, studied and talked, but it was a slow, lazy, rainy sunday. The rain was soft, but fell constantly. On one of my brief forays out, I found a world shrouded in dusk, clouds dark grey and cloudy. The rain fell softly upon my slightly disheveled hair with a featherlight touch. The normally slightly tarnished state of Beijing was transformed to a damp, shiny set of slightly tarnished, but wet buidlings. Despite the cool weather, despite the falling rain, some female students still wore high-heeled sandals, short cut dresses, and would still hold on to their boyfriends arm, just like if it were sunny. The umbrella they use is even the same. Protection against the sun, precipitation, all wrapped in one well designed package.

I've not got very much more to say for now, but here you go.

-Ben