Beginning of Shanghai

Knowing that I'm skipping ahead by not talking about Jiu Zhai Gou or my Three Gorges Damn cruise on the Yangtze River, but since I have not been able to find an internet cafe where I can upload pictures, I am just going to skip ahead. So this post is going to be entirely without pictures then.

When I first got to Shanghai, I got to say I was quite relieved. Immediately in PuDong airport (there are 2 main airports in Shanghai), I immediately got a waft of civilization. In the bathrooms in the airport, I felt a little like I was in Japan. The bathroom was relatively clean, and the hand dryers were the high-tech ones in Japan where they dry your hands in under a minute. Leaving, the airport, Lynn and I went to the Maglev train (the bullet train in Shanghai that goes 250 mph). I got to say that it was just fast. You could feel that the train was well-built and not a shady-made Chinese product. haha

Getting to the end of the train line, I met my uncle that I haven't met for a long time. He took us to dinner really fast on the subway line. Even the subway in Shanghai is better since they had more hand railings for people. The walk to the restaurant was pretty funny, since my uncle being about 86 was really funny since he kept repeating the same thing to himself. You could tell he was mentally sharp and physically good since he swims 1 mile everyday non-stop in 46 minutes, but just hearing him repeat things to himself was pretty funny. So at the restaurant, my uncle first asked me and Lynn to choose what to eat, but then when the waitress came over he just ordered for us. It was really funny when the waitress told my uncle they were out of one dish or another since my uncle always responded whether or not they get the dish from some other restaurant that they just bring over. haha

When we got to my grandma's house in Shanghai, I felt quite bad for Lynn since he had to sit through the whole talk we had her. To make things pretty straightforward, my grandmother has had Alzheimer's for I think about 2 years now. So naturally, when I met her, she had no idea who I was. Actually she sort of freaked out when she first saw me. She also had trouble remembering who her own son (my father) was. In turn, we basically spent about 1 hour at least in the late night trying to explain that I was not a bad person that was going to steal her stuff and that I was her grandson. So these 2 topics were mainly the only topics that we said for an hour to my grandmother since she kept forgetting, and us having to remind her. You know, I got to say I wasn't frustrated at all, since she was my family, and I could not even imagine what she was going through since even she admitted that she didn't remember a lot of things. Imagine, half of your life you couldn't remember, and you just have to rely on others to tell you about your life. After that long talk, we went upstairs into my room and went to sleep.

Overall, I thought that night was pretty emotional for me, in a sense. I mean, my grandmother couldn't even remember who I was, and I would have to repeat to her that I was her grandson every time I saw her. Everyday I try to remind her who I am and my name, but she keeps forgetting. On the bright side, she now doesn't think I am a bad person, and since I keep repeating the same thing over and over, I get to practice my Shanghainese with her. haha I think it's interesting that I'm actually not really sad about my grandmother's state. I don't mean that I am insensitive, but I from what I have been taught, the Lord always does things for a reason to help me grow and continue in my walk. And I just think that this is a challenge that I have been blessed with to cope with. So unlike my father, who I feel just avoids her, which I think is because he is sad that she has trouble even remembering him, I try to talk with her at least a couple minutes everyday. I mean I need to spend every possible minute with her as possible, and just maybe, maybe I could help her remember the memorable moments in her life.

Going back to the timeline of this post, the next day when we woke-up, I got up early and then ventured into the different rooms of the house. I first went to the one next door to my room, which was my late grandfather's. I sort of went through his things (closet and looked at pictures). I was quite touched by when I went there since one of the few pictures that my grandfather had there was one of me and him when I was a child in San Jose. Looking at his face, he was so happy. I got to say that this also brought up a lot of emotions. Going through this room made me realize how selfish I have been in my life. Both times when I came to Shanghai, I never really spent any time with my grandfather at all. I was always self-indulged in what I wanted. And this is just such a poor example of how selfish I have been in my life. I never really took advantage of the chances that were given to me in my life to spend time with my family. I have failed so many times in what the Lord has given me. And now I can only regret that I never took up these chances. This I feel is a really pivotal moment in my life, since I knowingly have always rushed through things, and made mistakes consequentially by doing so. And this is just something I need to cease doing. After this moment, I now have earnestly tried to improve myself by taking slower, casual walks in Shanghai and taking in the scenery. I got to say that this is quite hard in China since everyone is always in such a rush, but it's just another way of separating myself into the Lord's grace. Overall though, I am not sad that my grandfather has passed away without me knowing him. As Pastor Patrick had said in one of his sermons, people should not be sad that their loved ones have passed away since you know that they have moved on into a better life in the Lord's light. It is with this thought, that I feel I have learned so much in my couple days in China.

And from this, I can only feel some notions of hatred at my dad's side of the family for never really taking any care of my grandparents. My uncles have all moved away from this house which they all lived in and stayed in there spheres in the U.S. They both keep saying how they want to come back to China, but I feel that their main reasons is to just visit China, and not my grandmother. And my cousins I feel have succumbed to the heavy pressures of American society in taking care of only themselves. I don't think many people realize how us Americans are actually so self-indulged into ourselves. We say that we take pride in helping each other, but one must also take note in how it is actually a sort of expected obligation that one's parents are supposed to live with you once they grow old so that you could take care of them. Not just throw them in a retirement home. I feel that this is a major flaw in our American society. I don't feel that my father is a good person, but at least he did something right by going against the American government by coming to China to take care of my father's funeral immediately, while also defying the U.S. government's clear intentions to prevent this due to his security clearance. I mean his boss even tried to get him fired for going to China. I just feel that this is something that us Americans fail, in which we take pride in our family values that I feel are extremely lacking. I can only hope that my experience can teach others and prevent such precarious and detrimental activities in other people's lives.

So now on to the bright side of this trip. I got to say that I really do love Shanghai. The city I feel is nothing like any other part of China. People are more cultured here. The streets are clean; I mean they have public bathrooms scattered throughout the city. I think I have only seen 2 people pee on the streets, which I thought was since these people are not really shanghainese. And when I heard in Beijing that people in Shanghai are rude, I don't think this is true. People are just busy and go on to their own business. If you see someone that is quite idle, such as the street guards that actually manage the flow of traffic in the city, they will kindly direct you to wherever you want to go. And the food is a LOT better. A $3 dinner here I feel can easily be comparable to the $80 dinner I had in Beijing. I got to say thought that the city definitely is not that large land-wise, but it is large since they really do know how to build up. There's skyscrapers everywhere and the skyline in the night is just beautiful. I'll post some pictures later on when I probably go back to the U.S. since I can't load up my pictures here.

Oh, so there were some funny moment in Shanghai though. I got to see half of a rear bumper of a decent taxi car get ripped off by a bus when it tried to cut in front of it. Oh and I got to see Lynn get seriously hurt at the subway station. So you have to insert a card into the machine to go through one of those revolving gate thingies that just let one person through with each admittance. So he put his in, and it rejected it, but Lynn didn't notice. So Lynn unwittingly swung into the gate and got hurt. I wish I had my camera with me since his face suddenly changed from one full of accomplishment to one of pain. hahahahahahhahaa Oh my goodness, I can just replay that moment in my life a couple of times and just laugh about it again. hahahahhahahahahahaha

The only word of caution I can give about the city is be careful about giving money to beggars. I got to see first hand how a woman purposely dressed herself up as a poor lady that was pregnant with no money, and then the pillows fell out of her dress. It's like, "you gave birth to pillows!" haha So I feel that this is something that Shanghai still has to work on since you can't knowingly give to the poor since there's always that fear that you're just giving money to a con-artist. I would gladly give money to the poor; I mean I would like to again give another 100 RMB (~$13) to a poor person, but I do feel wary about doing so now.

Overall, I got to say that the trip was quite pleasant, and I myself have grown a lot. I do feel that I have been blessed with this chance to grow, and I can only hope that I would be given the chance to actually come back to Shanghai next year. I know; I actually want to come back to China in some sort of way. Definitely different from when I was in Beijing. haha

Pandas and Renmin Square

So things have been pretty cool I feel. Three days ago I went to go see the pandas in Chengdu. In the city, there’s a really famous Panda Research Center. From what I understand, this is supposed to be the premiere research center for pandas. They supposedly artificially inseminated a panda successfully within the past 2 months.

Anyways, we left at about 7 a.m. to get there. The place was definitely different from the rest of China I felt. Surprisingly here, they actually enforced the rule where no one could smoke. I know that this is odd, but this was really rare here for China since everyone smokes. So over here was some of our first foreigners on our trip. Since we got there early, there wasn’t really anyone; actually the visitor’s service center was closed at the time we got there.

Our first stop was some panda habitats where they put the pandas individually in this huge cage. Here’s some pictures of these pandas:

I even got a pictures of a huge panda turd!

It actually looks exactly like a horse’s fecal matter; doesn’t it?

After that, we checked out the RED pandas. I know, RED pandas. Their actual name literally translated into English is “red panda”. They are actually an early evolutionary branch of the giant pandas that the pandas that we associate with today. Instead of being in cages, they’re actually in this huge artificial nature habitat as you can see from the picture below.

Also, doesn’t the red panda look like raccoons. It’s interesting that they still have tails. Actually, pandas when they’re born at first have a tail within the first 2 weeks. They actually had a picture of this in the panda museum, but I forgot to take one. Sorry ‘bout that. Getting back to the point, while I was just about finished with the red panda area, I saw a random sign that said that we could hold the red panda and take a picture of it. After some inquiry, I found out that it cost ONLY 50 RMB! That’s just a little over $7! So what did I do? Obviously … I paid to hold the panda and take pictures with it.

So before you can hold the panda, they put me in some makeshift scrubs as you can see in the picture below.

Then I got to hold the RED panda! The panda was surprisingly light. I guess it was about 40 lbs.

Yeah, it was just eating some apples that the lady fed it, as you can see below.

The fur was really coarse, and the claws were amazingly sharp. The whole time, the RED panda basically just ignored me and ate the apple. How rude! Sorry, didn’t get any real pictures of me actually really posing with the panda in my lap, but I was just so into having a panda on my lap, as you can see from the big smile on my face there.

So I was actually quite surprised that they didn’t advertise the chance to hold the RED panda in your lap that much. It was basically just this one sign that’s in the back of the building where you hold the panda in some obscure spot. So yeah… like any of us could do this in the U.S. HAH! And on the bright side, since no one really knew about it, and since there weren’t that many people, I was able to hold the panda for what I would think at last a few good 5 minutes. So this pretty much made the whole trip to China worth it.

Later on, we checked in on the panda nursery. We weren’t supposed to get take pictures of these baby pandas, but I took one at first, since I didn’t see the sign, and then I later snuck one in. hehe I know, that was bad of me, but dude it was a baby panda!

This one is about 14 days old.

This one is about 2 months old.

So after that, got some pictures of the giant pandas in their habitat. Pretty cool. Was at first disappointed a little since they were all sleeping in the trees, as you can see below.

But later on, they called in a panda with some bamboo shoots that they’ve been picking around the park.

Then people got the chance to pet this huge panda that was just sitting on some chair and eating bamboo shoots. It would’ve cost 400 RMB. If there weren’t so many people, I might have done it, but sine there were, people basically just got two pats of the panda, and NEXT! So I definitely think the red panda was a lot more worth it. Well I got some pictures of other people taking pictures with these pandas.

I guess it’s possible that I could ask my girlfriend to photoshop these ugly people out and put handsome me in there instead. haha Just kidding.

So there wasn’t much else here; just a crappy “Swan Lake” with some birds. I was glad that we went to the panda place so early since just about when we were finished, it started raining. After hearing from Ryan that the pandas go crazy when it rains, we ran back to the giant pandas area to check them out. Sadly, they were just sleeping higher in the tree. So nothing much on that. Since it was raining so hard, we just hid in the entrance way where you could take pictures with the baby pandas. I know; you can take a picture with a baby panda too? Well yeah… It’s China. Anything goes. Haha I would’ve taken a picture with these too, but I think 1000 RMB was a little too pricey for me though. Well anyways, because we hid in this entrance way for so long, the people there let us in. Here we got to see the kid pandas. They were pretty cool, I just wish there was more lighting there so that I could get pictures. But I guess these pictures will do.

So later on, we left the panda place and went back to our hotel room to dry off and take a rest sine we’ve been getting maybe 5 hours of sleep for the past 2 nights. There, we decided to walk around the area a little; nothing much there. Then we went to what I found on the internet to be Renmin Square. Being the cheap Asians that we have become here in China, we refused to split 30 RMB ($4) to take a taxi there, and we just walked there aimlessly without knowing where we were going. At least we got to see some cool things like the Sichuan Technology Museum that was closed. Got to also see the Place where they held the FIFA 2007 Women’s World Cup in Chengdu by the Hilton.

Well when we got there, we got to see quite a bit of culture. If I haven’t seen so much of people like dancing in the plaza as seen below, this probably would’ve been really cool, but I’ve seen a lot of this in Beijing.

So the main attraction here in Renmin square was the tea houses here that were supposedly really famous. Some former Chengdu tour guide I met in Beijing highly recommended that I go try these teahouses. Being the backpackers we were, we found them only to be disappointed. It was basically just an outdoor place to drink tea where people either talked amongst their own table, played mah-jang, or played 13 (the card game) while betting.So after this, we just left, and went home. On the way home, we got to see a Chinese version of Red Asphalt on the streets. You remember, that video that you were forced to watch in Driver's Ed.

Since nothing really wrong has gone on this trip so far, something was bound to happen. Well what happened? Well right when we went into Carrefour (a French competitor to Wal-Mart in China), Lynn said “uh-oh”. When I first heard this, I was thinking, did he just crack his glass lenses while cleaning them on this shirt, or did I do something wrong. Actually, the most random thing happened, his frame broke and his pair of glasses, turned into 2 separate eyeglasses entitities. Luckily, we found an optometry place right next door to Carrefour earlier in the day when we were exploring. So I just walked the blind fellow to the place there.

It was here, that Lynn had a revolution where he converted to contacts! I got to say that it was not all that fun, since it took him about 1 hour at least for him to put on his bran new spanking contacts. It was actually quite funny. There were 2 of the workers there and I that tried to either force the contacts in his eye or help him. None of this worked, so a bunch of us gave up after awhile and let him figure it out. Actually, it was quite funny. You could totally see how that when the contact got close to his eye, his eye would just suddenly retract. So I thought that this was great. Haha.

So this was my cool day in Chengdu. The next day I flew to Huang Long / Jiu Zhai Gou, which is where I am currently writing this entry right now.

Beginning of China Trip

So what’s been happening lately? Well actually a lot. At the time I’m writing this, I’m about 2 days into my trip. On Thursday night, we had our farewell dinner. We had hot pot. Not too special, but the fact that everyone in my lab was together was quite great. I will miss Yu Jianjun (my mentor), Nan Kai (the PI), Dr. Liu (another PI), Kevin (someone I took as my mentor haha), and Sun Yuanhua. At the dinner though, it was quite funny. For some reason or another, Nan Kai (my PI) asked me about the iPhone. So we got into a whole discussion that I got to say I was fully happy to talk about, since I guess I am an Apple fanatic. I don’t quite think that has anything to do with me having invested about $7k in the company. Anyways, it was also quite funny that Nan Kai and Dr. Liu both commented that I’m just like a kid. I’ve heard this many times, but I got to say that I take this with pride, since I’ve always thought that I should always keep my kid-like spirit kindled within me. As they say in the famous old Toys ‘R ‘Us song, I don’t wanna grow up. I’m a Toys ‘R ‘Us kid… So anyways, Friday was my last day at work. I actually came into work to finish on my final presentation that I’ve been working on for a week then, write a paper, finish some way overdue PRIME things, and see if I could get the job script that I’ve been working on for about 4 weeks finally working so that it would be finished when I got back to the U.S. But obviously, I didn’t get the job script working, and I just went home later rushed to clean-up my apartment and leave rather abruptly.

So I was quite happy to leave Beijing. I got to say, Beijing was driving me crazy since I always felt like it was a really boring city. Also, the beginning of my trip would have symbolized the beginning of my venture to what I would like to call my “home land” Shanghai. I will finally be able to understand people there, since learning from this experience, shanghainese is extremely different from regular-old mandarin. So I got to say, the prospect of backpacking across China is both daunting and exciting. In the middle of this trip though, the whole experience has been all but positive.

So Friday night, I took an overnight train to Xi’an to see the Terracotta statues. I got a 4-person soft sleeper going there. The people in the top bunks in our cabin were taking there son to college in Xi’an. Well, when the attendant lady came by to get our tickets, she laughed outright when I was talking to Lynn in English. Apparently, a lot of people do this when I talk in English, and I’ve never understood why. Anyways, the train ride itself was quite pleasant. It was hard to go to sleep at first, but when I got in the rhythm of the train, I was knocked out cold.

When we got to Xi’an, what was the first thing that happened? Well, I got hustled. A bunch of people just started following me and started trying to hustle me to try to go with them somewhere or something like that. I got to say, it was quite annoying. Another thing was that immediately I just started seeing a bunch of people puking all over the place. So what did this mean to me? Don’t eat the food there. Haha Getting back the story, Lynn and I just started walking around Xi’an looking to where we could drop off our luggage. Took us about 30 min. to make a loop back to the train station to drop off our luggage. I got to say that was quite funny. Then it took us about 15 min. to find how to get to the Terracotta statues. Took a bus there for 45 minutes. And finally … we go to the Terracotta statues! Walked around into the pits where they were unearthed. There were 3 pits. I got to say that I was quite impressed, especially in real life. Apparently, when the Terracotta statues were made, about 200 B.C., the Chinese had chromium plating technology to prevent corrosion of their metals. They said that when they found the pits, the swords were in near perfect condition. Then the statues were pretty cool … obviously. Here’s some pictures of me and the statues having some special time together.


Here's some pictures of one of the three pits of statues . That's a lot of statues. Don't you think?
After we went into the pits to see the statues, we had a lunch buffet there. The food was okay, but nothing special. The most important part … the food was safe and no puking. From what I noticed, most of the people that went to this attraction all came in large tourist groups. I thought that was quite interesting.

After the statues, we went to the train station to pick-up our luggage. On the way back to the train station though, we visited Egypt in China. Got to see the sphinx and a Gaza pyramid. Don't believe me? Well look, I can prove it!

We then went to the airport. The airport was quite nice. A pretty small airport, but nice enough. An interesting thing though was that at the gate, they drove us all in a bus to the plane. There was not walkway to the place. The plane ride I got to say was comparable if not better than a standard domestic flight in the U.S. Also, this was my first time ever flying in an Airbus place – specifically the Airbus 310 – which is made by a French company.

So when we got to Chengdu, there was an immediate difference in the city. First, the people that usually hustle you were actually nice. If you just tell them that you don’t want there service, they’ll usually go away. Second, the people in Chengdu were a lot better looking. Before coming here, everyone in Beijing told me that the women here in Chengdu were beautiful. I got to say, that when I heard this I was skeptical. But now, I can see what they’re talking about. Apparently, the facial complexions and skin tone in Chengdu are a lot better. It was ridiculous! And the people here freaking had style! Style in clothes I mean. Finally, some people with style! Third, no one really honks here unless necessary, and there were a LOT LESS cars on the road. People for the most part obeyed a lot more of the traffic laws here. Well, when we got to our hotel, and the hotel room I feel is better than my apartment in Beijing, even though it’s only a 3 star hotel. The full-size table that they have here converts into a mah-jong (shanghainese → moo-jang) table, which I thought was quite cool.

The next day, we went to Le Shan. Took us a 42 RMB bus ride to Le Shan for about 2 hours + what we didn’t know was a 1 RMB insurance thing . Then took a 1 RMB bus ride in Le Shan to the Da Fu (“big luck”), or what we foreigners would like to call the Big Buddha. It took 70 RMB to get in there, but I got to say that it was expensive, and nothing all that great.

While walking in the area, we got to see a lot of scenery. Like after it was raining, there were a bunch of these caterpillars all over the ground.
Here's a pagoda that they had in the park.
Here’s some pictures of me and the Big Buddha.

Sad to say, I wasn’t literally able to climb the Big Buddha like I would have liked. Also, the humidity was killing me! The whole time I was sweating like crazy, and I was never thirsty. I had to force myself to drink some water. And I got to see a bunch of these crazy caterpillars on the ground. They were just falling out of the trees after it rained.

Came back to Chengdu after that and ate the hot pot. The hot pot here was crazy! It was so hot! I eat a lot of hot food, and I got to say, that this was unbearable, but good nonetheless. After that, came back to the hotel room and here I am. Tomorrow, I go to see the pandas. Whoopie!

Beijing Smog Experiment Hilarious

I just had to post this immediately when I read this article from the New York Times titled "Cars Stay Away But Beijing Smog Remains" on August 20, 2007. It states that "the city doubled the number of traffic police on patrol to 6,000 to make sure drivers behaved" for the past weekend. I got to say that this was hilarious, because I have not seen a single change in traffic over the past weekend. And to make things even funnier, I haven't seen a change in the funky polluted haze that blocks out the sun in Beijing. haha I love propaganda.

Guy's Night Out

Lately, a lot of us have been getting bored here in Beijing. So yesterday, Alex and I decided to be sort of adventurous. First we went out and explored the underground mall near us that we never knew that existed. It was pretty dang big. I think it took us at least a good 2 hours to explore the place. We got lost in there a few times too. Here's some interesting pictures of some things in the mall.
Here's a picture of a store called Cache. What's so special about this store? Well, because I have a girlfriend and have had to go shopping with her for prom dresses, this is a store that she has gotten a few dresses from. I think one cost about $180 and another $300. So I thought I had to get a picture of this place since everything was on sale, and the stuff cost like 30 RMB (~ $6).
Here's a crazy picture of a lamp inside the mall. It looks like some kind of bird's nest.
This is a picture of some kind of sculpture outside of the underground mall. Surprisingly, I've walked probably 30 yards away from this thing, and have never noticed it, including the sign behind it that says "Zhongguancun Plaza Shopping Mall".

Yeah, after we ate on one of the ground floors, Alex and I freaking found a huge food court that a huge variety of stuff. For the longest time, I've been looking for dim sum and what's called in shanghainese san ji mu da. I found it here! hahahaha So Alex and I made an oath to eat here as much as possible, for example, for every possible dinner where we don't eat out something special, we HAVE to come here to eat.

Anyways, later on, we went to Carrefour, basically a Super Wal-mart center (I think from what I understand) with a larger grocery area. For some reason, we stumbled upon face masks, and Alex mentioned how Elaine from last year wanted some with the brand name Magic. Out of pure boredom, I suggested that we try some to see what the whole fuss about them were. So, Alex and I got 1 for each of us, and tried it. Don't worry, we are just exploring our boredom and feminine side. haha

August 16, 2007

So I guess quite a bit of stuff has happened recently. Project wise, I'm beginning to slack-off I admit. After working my butt off for the first few weeks (about 12 hour days), you start getting burnt out. I feel that my project is a little screwed right now, since I don't have the computing power I need right now, and I'm having trouble submitting my job to the UCSD clusters right now. Right now I'm making a sort of pointless database I feel, that does not have what I want in it. But that's my project, and I prefer not really getting into it right now.

I went to watch Transformers with a co-worker Sun Yuanhua. It was 25 RMB per ticket which is maybe about $3.50. I thought that the movie was really good, but it was still quite irritating how the Chinese government censors the movies I pay for. For some reason they bleeped out a part where they mention a country that was supposedly in the movie the only possible country to perform a hack on the government. Been trying to search what that country is, but haven't been able to find it yet. So if you find it, post it in the comments for me! Anyways, before we saw the movie, I got some quick McDonald's. I know, I know. It's McDonald's (unhealthy), but in my defense I only had 30 min. to find somewhere to eat, and eat. Well why I was there, I was talking to Sun Yuanhua, and I asked her what she believed it. It was the funniest reply every. "I believe in science, and communism.... If everyone has money and is happy, communism must be good." I thought that was great. I love China! haha

After that, I went clubbing at Vics and Baby Angel Club. Vics I thought was really overrated. The male to female ratio was quite disappointing I thought. This is how I characterize the club. Too many men, females in pairs, or just couples. It was fun overall hanging out buzzed/drunk with Ocean (a native in China), Ryan and Lynn. I think that's all that happened. So peace out then.

August 15, 2007

So quite a bit has happened, but I forgot most of it already. haha. So I'll try to go through a run-down with what has happened lately.

Research wise, I basically got a lot done. I'm getting some data, that is something but still sort of useless since I don't having any of the docking data. Mainly just waiting around for my simulations to finish. Taking about 21 days for them to run. Trying to get one job for one of my simulations working on a UCSD cluster, but haven't been able to get my job script working. Well that's to be expected since I'm not a CS major and I'm having trouble contacting the people in UCSD about it. So yeah, that's about it for research (the short version at least).

Now something I really wanted to talk about was how recently the blogs were removed from the PRIME website. I've had a lot of time to reflect about this, and it's something I feel I would like to express, and I feel many other students feel also. Although I understand the reasons why they were taken down, I feel that this should have been foreseen - referring to the reason of safety and personal information in the blogs. Talking to past people about the program, apparently this sort of personal information in the blogs have surfaced before; not safety wise though from what I now, but there might be. Anyways, these blogs I feel were created solely for the PRIME program since I felt like I was indirectly asked to make one. So I made a website and a blog just for the program. Even though it was not in the requirements, I was under the impression that it was sort of expected from us in an off the record way. And now that the blogs have been taken down for reasons that I thought were obvious, I am quite disgruntled. I don't believe I was ever mad, but I do believe that before and still now I am irritated. So yes, I just wish such an obvious thing like PERSONAL information in PUBLIC blogs would've been considered earlier in the beginning of the program. So that is my schpeel about this topic.

So Ryan's gone from the program, a little sad about it. I thought it was quite sudden how he had to move out. Basically, the night before he moved out, he just told me he was moving out. It was quite sad how sudden it was. At least he's still in Beijing.

And now since the program is over, I guess it's time for some thinking about where I am. So I have learned a lot. I guess everyone does that. So I'll make it short. blah blah blah Bl- blah blah BLAH! haha Going into this program in the beginning, I would've like to go down under in Australia, just to go down under, or go to Japan since for the whole school year before I was in a Japanese lab, and at least I would've had some connections in Osaka. And in my first couple weeks in China I have to admit that I was quite envious. But now, I don't think I am since a lot of what I have learned has come from a different side. Instead of just being exposed to a new culture, I have been exposed to a, I don't know... ghetto lifestyle. My bathroom floor floods all the time. I am used to being splashed with some funky China puddle water stuff all the time. Stepping on spit. Seeing little kids take little cream or brown colored poops on the streets (man I wish I had pictures of these things. I just saw one today!). People laying on China streets. Almost getting hit by cars all the time and always getting honked at. Now looking back at what I've just written, this does make China look pretty bad. But I don't think that's necessarily the right way of thinking at it. I think this is just one way of seeing how much I've been blessed with, and something that I have always taken granted before in my life. So I think living in would at least I call a "ghetto" environment for my high American standards has taught me a lot. And this is why I'm now happy for being here in China

Back to what I've experienced. Saw the new Harry Potter movie in a real Chinese theater. It was okay; lots of technical glitches though with the movie. The theater was in this huge shopping building. I think it was about 5 floors. I finally found out where people our age spend their time other than internet cafes in China. They go to the freaking arcades! Never knew that. The shopping there was really expensive; about American price for stuff. Got some LEGAL dvd's there - 300 and City of Angels. Watched them, and I got to say I am a little irritated since they censor stuff of the dvd's. Mainly the nude/sex scenes, but I still got to say that I am annoyed since I never asked them to censor or cut my movies. I just feel like my movies have been violated in one way or another. So lesson learned, don't buy legal dvd's here in China. Who knew? haha I think it's interesting how rude people in China can be, even in the rich areas like this high class shopping mall. When we left the theater from the fifth floor to get out of the building, the elevators got packed. Well so when I got on the elevator, where I was one of the first people to get on, like usual the elevator became overweight and wouldn't budge. So people just stood there for awhile not wanting to get off. Out of courtesy, I just got off the elevator out of free will to help everyone out and waited for the next one, even though I was one of the first ones to get on the elevator. I mean I don't mind getting off; I just think it's I think odd how not even the rich people in China have much courtesy, like the last people onto an elevator to get off so that it would move.

Did some more shopping in the Wu Dao Kou street earlier too. Sort of like Silk Street, but more for locals. Got a pair of fake Aeropostale shorts for $7, and got some good gel pens there for about 10 cents each. If anyone needs stuff there, you can tell me if you really want to. Hey, it'll just be a fun excuse for me to go shopping. haha

Found a random mall underground in the Tech district by my place. I know, a random mall that I never knew existed. But in my defense, it was underground. I usually don't look underground for a whole mall. haha Lots of expensive stuff there. Apparently there's Playboy shoes. Wanted to get some, but they don't have them in my size. Dang it. I plan to go there and do some shopping. Wow I love shopping. I finally found a decent Hello Kitty store there. So going to buy a lot of stuff there. Not for me of course, but for friends back in the U.S. Plan to go back there tomorrow and buy some stuff when I watch Transformers with a co-worker there.

So what else has happened? Went to English Corner again (a place where Chinese people go to practice their English on Friday nights). I basically went there because I wanted something to do and I was pretty much bored out of my mind in Beijing. Just wanted to listen to people and laugh how people crowded around people with light skin (denoting that they're Caucasian). Weren't that many foreigners there as last time. Out of curiosity there though, I wanted to see how long it would take to build a crowd if I made it known that I was American. So started speaking, and then lost count. But I was told I was able to make the crowd in about 1-2 minutes supposedly. Planning to go back there again this Friday to try it out again.

I finally got my trip after my work at CNIC ends arranged. I expect it to cost a little over $1000. This is in U.S. money, not RMB; so that's quite a lot. First going to Xi'an for one quick day to see the terracotta statues (the statues of a chinese army). Then going to Chengdu, for some good old food and tea houses. Apparently there are a lot of "beautiful girls" there as I'm told by locals here. Eh, don't really care, got a girlfriend back in the U.S. Then going to Huang Long and Jiu Zhai Gou. Two nature areas that are supposed to be really beautiful and famous. A lot of Chinese film scenes are filmed there, such as the lake scene in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon where they fight is in Hang Kong. Then, I am going to go to Yangtze River cruise. And FINALLY I get back to my roots in Shanghai. Planning to do A LOT OF SHOPPING THERE! HAHAHAHAHA And I'll finally be able to understand people there in good old Shanghainese. Zei wei Beijing and nong hao Shanghai! hahahahahaha So excited! I will finally be able to UNDERSTAND PEOPLE! And people will at least have some fashion sense there. So obviously, really excited for my trip and getting out of this forsaken, boring city called Beijing. I wish the program was in Shanghai, but that would never happen since probably no one would be able to understand sanghai eiwu there.

So soon until the program is over. So soon until I'm in Shanghai. So I can't wait.

August 7, 2007

So what has been happening lately? When I was about to write this entry, I first thought to myself that not much has happened. But now, as I start thinking about what's been happening in the past week quite a bit has happened.

I guess we can start with any trips that I've made. For the most part, I've just been mozying it around the city in Beijing. I recently went to the US embassy in Beijing. Wow, it was amazing how safe I felt there. Even though I was in China, when I was at the embassy, I was in a completely different world. For instance, they had freaking toilets and marble sinks! I know that this might not sound much to anyone, especially freaking TOILETS, but for here in China, this was a big step. At the embassy, I was surprised to find a Starbucks. I was planning to get some Starbucks there, but they wouldn't let me in. I guess it's only for employees who work there. Inside the embassy at the waiting area for US citizens, I for the most part felt like I was in a doctor's office waiting room. It was basically this really small room where people just sat and filled forms then spoke to people behind glass. When I went there, I just wanted to check it out, but surprisingly I found something to do there where I figured out some details about some advice they had for me when I was living in China that somehow no one in PRIME new about. Let's see here. First, do NOT carry a passport with you in China unless you are travelling or going somewhere like the US embassy. Apparently a US passport is fetching about 8,000 RMB (~ $1,100). That I think is a large sum, especially in China. Second, we should've registered at the embassy that we were in the area so that they could notify us if something was happening in the area, or maybe if they needed to find us. I think it's interesting how people overlook these things. Something I never really thought about it while I was there though was how many newborns were there. I think I saw at least three families with newborns that were born in China. I honestly wonder how much trouble it is to register them. But, for one thing, it was funny how even the newborns were tagged as "Visitor". Every single person that was a US citizen visitor had one of those sticky name tags that you just place on your shirt with an ID number. And on these babies, that I hear are only about 1-3 weeks old, have one of those tags right on their back or on their butt. I would've gladly taken a picture, but sad to say, they wouldn't allow us to bring phones or cameras into the embassy. I actually heard that we weren't supposed to bring water from outside, but we still brought it. haha Anyways, onto security at the embassy. For one thing that I was wondering, I thought it was interesting how there was a marine that checked us in to the office. I would think that it would be an army personnel. And around the embassy, there weren't really any US soldiers; actually Chinese soldiers. I thought that was interesting since you would expect the US to be paranoid enough to only allow US soldiers patrol the embassy perimeter.

But it was pretty funny how the Chinese soldiers were at the US embassy and the district. First of all, the soldiers there were extremely different from the ones I saw at Tian'an men square. They were definitely more polished and formal (not surprising since it was the embassy area). We basically saw two different types of Chinese soldiers at the U.S. embassy. The first soldier that we spoke to had a big smile on his face when we were asking how to get through the area. The second group was actually just around the corner and they were in this small random post thing. There were three of them that just stared straight ahead at the streets and didn't flinch at all. When I first saw them, they looked like statues; to imagine them think about those British soldiers that supposedly don't move. Getting closer to them, I saw that they all had semi automatic guns that they were holding in their hands. Acting like myself when I saw them (odd) I was able to get some of them to have their eyes shift to look at me! WOOT WOOT! HAHAHA So that's the U.S. embassy part.

Onto other parts of the embassy district. So I was able to see different embassies there, obviously. I was able to see the Cuban embassy! HAHA Cuban soil. I was actually able to get a picture of their embassy.So this is a picture of the gate to their embassy. From this picture, you probably can't really see the embassy.

So here's a close-up picture of their sign, just to prove I was there. Anyways, while I was there, I really wanted to just walk into their embassy and say that I've been on Cuban soil. Then possibly Bush and his administration could subpoena me. Hey, since I got subpoenaed by the RIAA, I might as well get subpoenaed by our own government just to prove a point. But showing that I'm here, I didn't go.

Anyways, here's another picture of another embassy that I saw there.
Yeah, pretty cool embassy I thought. If anyone could tell me the name of the country for this embassy, that would be great.
Here's a close-up of the sign for this embassy.

I would've gotten more pictures of the embassies, but then the next one I tried getting a picture of, the Nicargua embassy, the Chinese soldier there apparently received a phone call when I was about to take a picture and told me to go away or something like that. So basically, I got scared of the Chinese commies like the American tourist I am and was too scared to take anymore pictures since I think that they called all the soldiers in the area about me. haha Well, back to the Nicaragua embassy, it was quite obvious that it was from a poor country since the embassy looked really crappy compared to the others.

While I was there, I was FINALLY able to eat some American food in the area. Walking along the road, I noticed some people nearby that I remembered were at the U.S. embassy with us, and I asked them where to eat. They were nice enough to walk us to some restaurant; I honestly forgot the name of the restaurant. So the mother I was talking to told me that she's been in China for a couple years while her husband had some sort of sabbatical in China for psychology. I thought that was quite interesting. Her boy I honestly thought had ADD. He was pretty funny though. He would try to tell me something, but then he would just totally stammer in mid-speech and forget what he was saying. Back to the food, I got some Cajun pasta that was good. I was really tempted to get some pie there, since they had at least 10 different types of American pie there (apple, cherry, cream, cheesecake...). It's surprising how much I've taken granted for in the U.S. Well in the end, I decided not to get any, and I changed my mind to get some brownie. Shoot, now that I think about it, I should've taken a picture of it before I ate it. Oh well, too late now; but all I got to say about it is that it was GOOD!

So that's it for my embassy trip.

July 31, 2007

So I don't think much has happened lately. This past weekend, I just played it bum and didn't do much. For the past let's say 2 weeks my project has hit a roadblock. I'm getting a bunch of errors for running my jobs. So most of it has been a problem with the servers, making it extremely frustrating. Sometimes I feel like giving-up. When looking back at those feelings about giving-up, every time I am ashamed of myself as this is something I should feel. I have disgraced myself and my Father in so many ways, that this is just another example of how much growth I need and how far I am behind in my Walk. Anyways, things today and yesterday are starting to work. I basically just gave up using the PRAGMA grid and just started using the slower CNIC clusters. HAHA I feel dealing with UCSD after my recent experience with ACS and them shutting down my VPN access (cutting my off from my server) that dealing with some entity halfway across the globe is really troublesome. Later on I plan to continue to us the PRAGMA grid, but I feel that I should deal with one problem at a time. haha So right now I'm running my jobs, and I feel there's not much to do. I have a VTC tomorrow. eh.... I think that's it for work.

On with my growth here. I guess there has been quite a bit. Looking back at my past conflicts with people and the lessons that I've learned, I noticed that I have truly grown in many ways. Like I finally recognize the enormous pride that I must downsize and become more humble. Also, before whenever I saw someone acting what I would call "stupid", which I see many times, I would usually butt into other people's business and just make my life more difficult, but now I don't do that I feel. Well I don't do it as much as least. haha Ummm.... Oh being here in China, I am constantly reminded how blessed I am with everything that I have been given. For example, before I would think living in a double would be really difficult. After seeing how little people have to live with here in China, with many college students having to easily cram at least 4 people in one room with no privacy, I see how much I have been given. So to tackle this observation I've made, I have challenged myself next year by changing from a single to double and now a triple in one room. I think it's an experience that I require in my growth to remind me how much I've been given. Furthermore, before I guess I've always spent money pretty freely with some self-conscious constraints, but now I have noticed how frivolously I have been with money and how much I have been blessed with the ability to support myself. So now I plan to be more charitable and not be so careless with my money. So guess that's it for that.

On another note about how much I've been blessed with, I came around someone else's blog recently as linked here. After reading this, I now see how we as a nation have strayed so far from what we have embodied. A country of the free? I think not now. Many of us in the U.S. feel that our government exercises too much military will without enough discretion, but I even now see how we have strayed from a country built upon a mosaic of people through immigration. It seems that we selectively choose people immorally who can come and become and American citizen. Is it that much of a privilege? Should one be examined like an animal to be seen as a "desirable" or "defective"? This all goes back to the movie Gattaca, where we are much like a eugenic society. Who are we to to decide if one is flawed? I feel that we acting as if we are God when we have no place to do so. So therefore, I think we should reform and change our views of people that are "foreign" and embrace as brothers and sisters despite anyone's flaws.

Oh so spiritually I feel that I have suddenly been reminded about how much more I need to grow. Like I feel that I was in a way content with myself. But again I am ashamed, for I always have room to grow. For me, I think there's an exceptional room for growth. Anyways, so now I'm reading more of the scriptures, and with every verse I read, I gain ever so much more wisdom. I guess that doesn't make sense, but I'm too lazy to fix that. haha

Finished my books. I finished 2 series of books. haha Wow I read a lot now. Ummmm... Dealt with freaking Citibank about my credit cards. Trying to get my prescription medicine from U.S. here. And that's about it! Woot woot!

July 27, 2007

So not much has been happening lately. I'm basically writing this so I can procrastinate from sleeping. Anyways, work is okay. After working my butt of for the past couple of weeks, I am at the point where I don't have much to do. I'm basically just waiting for my program NAMD to get installed correctly on the PRAGMA test grid correctly. So this is taking awhile, because when I test it and usually find out that things aren't working, I have to e-mail someone, then wait a day for a reply. Simply said, I only do one thing each day really. I'm reading up on some things and catching up on some of my reports that I'm behind on. But at least I'm beginning to get to know the people in my lab better now that I have more time.

Hmmm.... What else is happening? So I got about 450 shares of Ford stock last week. Screwed it up a little bit due to the time difference, so lost about $300 from that so far. Didn't know that Akamai was going to release earnings today, or I would have probably bailed out. So I just lost about $650 on that I think at least. Oh, yesterday I forgot that Amazon was going to release their earnings, so I skipped out on making about $600. Oh well. Gained about $400 today on Apple stock. Apparently, Apple is valued more that HP now.

Oh, I found a really cool video. Here is a link of a Chinese plane landing. Doesn't that make me feel safer in China. Huh? And I think that's about it. I'm feeling pretty lazy now. Oh well. Wow, that was a good way to kill time. Well, good bye y'all!

July 24, 2007

So earlier, I had a lot that I wanted to say, but the freaking RIAA thing came up. So I had to vent about that. Now that that's over, I can now talk about what I really wanted to talk about with what's been happening. So on Sunday, we went on a foray to Tienanmen Square again, since the night before it was closed. On the way there, we tried stopping by at the US embassy, but they were closed. From what I could tell, it was only two floors and not as grand as one would expect it to be. Furthermore, the walls didn't just have just gate things to keep intruders out on top of them, but also had a criss-cross to keep people in. I'm not quite sure if I'm making myself clear, but that is the best I could explain.

Anyways, after that, we kept going and stopped by at Wong Fu Jing. There we stopped by the bookstore, which I say was huge. That took at least a good 30 minutes. We met some people from San Jose there that were quite interesting. After meeting them, I was able to reflect upon myself and my pride. I feel that so many of us are driven by our goals, and always taught that we should believe that we ourselves are the best. But after observing these people from San Jose, I have seen how flawed that thought can be. I feel that we, myself included, have draped a veil upon our eyes and have failed to ignore the many things we can learn from each other. It is actually I think one of my biggest challenges to be humble, for I myself also have pride. It is with humbleness that I believe I can reach my goals the best. With pride I feel I will only make enemies with others around me, and it is imperative that I gain favorable opinions of people so that I would not have to deal with drama and so I could therefore focus on my task. I don't know, maybe I'm just babbling or being weird, but this is my train of thought right now. But I do feel that pride is definitely a vice that I must overcome.

Anyways, after the bookstore we went to McDonald's. Yes I mean McDonald's. I love getting their ice cream cones which is only 2.50 RMB. And this is the closest I can get to good old American ice cream. Also, at McDonald's in China there's no such thing as apple pie. They have Taro pie, Pineapple pie, and something else - Orange pie! They all come in more or less the same kind of cardboard container and look just like a regular apple pie. I got the pineapple pie and it was great! Much better than the apple pies.

But I refrained from getting more since I was concerned that I had my daily helping of calories from 2 ice cream cones and 1 pineapple pie. Can't forget that this is McDonald's. Eh....

After that, we went to Tienanmen Square and finally I got to go on it. I got to say it was great during the night. It's completely different, and I definitely prefer it there. I got to say it was huge, and I learned some things about Chinese history that I probably dismissed earlier in my life. Like the purpose of the People's monument was to symbolize how the Cultural Revolution took pride in the people (hence communism). It was also funny how some merchant was trying to sell water bottles for 2 RMB in Chinese, but when the guy saw Ryan, he said "5". That was hilarious and another example of how dishonest Chinese people could be.

After that we had a good dinner that my cousin took us to. I was surprised how hard it was to get rice in China. I was quite peeved off at the person. And apparently they served us our dessert before our main courses. So even though the food was good, the service was annoying. Like how freaking hard is it to get rice in China! My cousin's explanation, and I agree, is "Hey, it's China. The simplest things are the hardest."

Jumping to the future now, I just finished the new Harry Potter book. I actually thought that the ending was a little disappointing, but it was pretty good. I think Joanne Jo Rowling did a good job writing it. After reading an article some while back on the novel's history, I learned how Joanne Jo Rowling changed her name as the author to J.K. Rowling because of the publisher's beliefs that a feminine name would hold back the amount of books sold. This sad to say I feel is somewhat true, and is a clear example of how we must fight such discriminatory beliefs. I feel that it should not matter what gender or affiliation that any person might have. Every single person can have a large impact on society, and I think this is key. So I would only hope that people Joanne Rowling can take their new found power and wealth and wield to battle the discriminatory notions that run our societies.

Subpoena Afterthoughts

So I've been doing some research on this subpoena, and I found this article detailing this latest batch. In light of this, I now know by first hand how dishonest the music industry has become. By trying to trick people to indict themselves of a crime, the music industry has sunk to an even lower level than their supposedly "relentless piraters." By looking at what organizations are represented by this organization, I have come with another simple conclusion. This is small probably to these music companies but I have decided to boycott these companies by investing in their stocks. Many times I have considered buying stocks like Sony, which owns Sony BMG, and Time Warner, which recently spun off a company called Warner Music, but I say now, that I will boycott in investing in these companies by purchasing any of their stocks shares as it seems like the values that govern these companies have deteriorated to such a level that I myself am now disgusted. It's a wonder how these companies stay in business with their values and how so very few people, including the artists that are represented by these companies have spoken against them. I remember a couple years ago how I hear a news story on the news about how the media is now controlled by then a few major media companies by consolidating everything. Back then, everyone was scared of large corporations governing the media that we are exposed to, and I simply dismissed it as another more efficient way for a business/company to be run. But now, I would like to publicly rescind these beliefs as I am now exposed to the edge of the other more cruel aspect of consolidation of business. And it is by this experience I now understand the fear that large corporations represent in society.

Subpoena

Okay, so the most possibly annoying thing happened just within the first hour. So I woke up late today and checked my e-mail like I usually do, and apparently I get a little present e-mail from UCSD. Here's some excerpts.

We recently received a letter that a subpoena will be served regarding the illegal distribution of copyrighted material from a computer registered to you. The subpoena warning alerts us that this company has identified your computer as distributing copyrighted material, intends to file a lawsuit and will be serving a subpoena to UCSD to obtain your name and contact information.

UCSD's response will be as follows:

1. The first notice is a warning, but your connection has been blocked temporarily in case your computer has been compromised and to prevent you from getting more copyright violations.
2.You will be required to schedule an appointment with the ACS Help Desk, and will need to bring in your computer. Your connection will be blocked until the appointment has been completed. (Like I have no idea how to do this if I'm in a different country almost on the opposite side of the world.)

So right now, I am quite annoyed, not panicking. Why? Well let's see..... First I haven't downloaded any music illegally for the past couple years. Second, they basically shut-down my research project in China by closing my access to UCSD servers/clusters through VPN.

So yeah.... Really annoyed right now. I think I'm deciding to fight this rather than do a settlement because I feel that I've been wrongfully accused of a crime I did not commit.

You know, now I think about it, I think this e-mail has shown a lot about me. First, I did not really panic. I was more on the lines of like, "What the heck?" And second, I saw this from a purely legal point of view and contacted my parents to find me a lawyer.

But now after reading this e-mail again, I just figured out that this is a warning. But still, this warning is really annoying since I'm not quite sure what I'm getting warned about. (I've been freaking buying my music for over 2 years now off of iTunes!!!! My latest iTunes receipt says 01/05/2005) I guess this continues to demonstrate how the RIAA is flawed still by not quite knowing who the heck they're targetting.

July 22, 2007

So yesterday was one of the best days I've had here in China. I think maybe the brightest so far. I think maybe it made this trip totally worth it. So how did this day start? Well, I first got to sleep in until 10:30. OMG! I finally got to sleep in! When I woke up, I sort of did my thing, just killing time, then got ready for my cousin what was coming to visit me while he was in Beijing doing business. When he came, we started talking about stocks. haha Like how I just bought 425 shares of Ford stock. What a dork I am. haha Then after Alex got his lazy butt to my place we went out to go to eat lunch at one of the chain restaurants I went to with my family here in Beijing before. The food there I think was maybe one of the best I've had in a long time probably since my cousin ordered the right type of food. After that, we planned to go to Wu Dao Ka to pick my new Harry Potter book. Going there, we had an enormous string of good luck. We weren't quite sure how to get there, so we tried taking a taxi. Our first taxi drove us a little bit then dropped us off, since his meter wasn't working. Then the next taxi that we got into laughed at us, and told us how to get there by foot. So we just walked there in about 10 minutes. Getting the book, I was thinking about how fast I usually read, and how it would probably only take me a couple days of casual reading to finish it. What a shame.

After getting the book, we went to Silk Street by subway. When we got there I was a little disappointed to find out that my cousin didn't really want to shop/bargain with us. What a shame, since he's a really good bargainer. But after spending some time there, I began to understand why he did not want to come with us. First, the place was huge! He would have had to shop with us for maybe 4 hours in this building. Second, we got to bargain ourselves. I'm sure we didn't always get the best prices, but I got to say, it was one of the most fun and interesting experiences in my life. Before I always complained how in China we would even have to haggle over the bill at a restaurant, but when haggling for merchandise, I got to say it was really cool. The people working at the stores there could speak some english and spanish too. It was interesting watching people haggle. All the time, the people in their little shops would try to lure in Caucasians, Indians; basically anyone who did not look Chinese. From that point, I am glad that I look Chinese, since I didn't get constantly bothered. Also, it was interesting watching like 2 15 year old Caucasian girls yelling back at one shop employee for a bargain. It was quite entertaining to watch. Sometimes people new that they were getting jipped by the enormous prices they were offered since they looked like foreigners, but it seemed like many just saw it as entertainment. Hey, I guess I would also. I'll post some pics up of what I bargained down. But for now, here's the list. (Disclaimer: A lot of things in Silk Street are fake knock-offs)

Got talked into buying some insect in some glass thing for 80 RMB that I did not really want. Bought a coach purse for 180 RMB. Bought a silk scarf for 25 RMB. Bought 3 mesh shirts for a total of 190 RMB.

Going back to my cousin's place, we stopped by the St. Regis hotel, a 5-star hotel where my intelligent, bright President Bush could not open a door. I saw a Sizzlers, TGIF, and a Baskin Robbins 31. When we got to my cousin's apartment, I was definitely amazed. The place was right outside of two subway lines, 1-2 bus stops away from major shopping (Silk Street and Wan Fu Jing), 1 bus stops from Tiananmen square, and 2 blocks away from the train station. I got to say it also had a nice view. In his apartment, I was finally able to watch SOME english tv, CNN. My cousin then took us to dinner, which I got to say possibly has been the best food I've had on my trip to China, and he then took us to Tiananmen Square.

On the way to there, my cousin pointed out the building for the headquarters of the building and the secret police, quite scary I think. He also pointed out the People's Republic of China, or something like that. Basically it's China's version of our Congress building. When we got to Tiananmen Square, I learned a lot I felt. At about 9:30 p.m. they close it down. The reason apparently is so that the police could decrease the police force since less people will be on the Tiananmen Square, decreasing the chance of a public protest. Like, supposedly, my cousin informs me that about every work there's some protest that is shut-down immediately. Like within about 1-2 minutes the protest is over, since there's a bunch of police vans, police cars, homeland security police (somewhere between regular police and military), and secret police. So what they do, is that they just shove you into the van and drive you off. And apparently, it is not too uncommon for people to burn themselves in effigy when protesting too. I think it's quite interesting how this is in China, since this is very different in the U.S. In the U.S. we all know that we can protest and take it for granted, but here in China, people are unable to do this. On this point, my cousin was the first person ever that I have found in China that is disgusted by the censorship that they have here in China. Everywhere I go, all Chinese people say that it's okay, because the past was better. But my cousin, having lived in the U.S. for at least a decade, thinks it's ridiculous how they treat their own people.

For a good portion of getting to Tiananmen Square and home, I took the local city bus for the first time by myself here.

Picture of the busses in China going crazy

It's amazing how spoiled I am in the U.S. compared to here. Taking into consideration that so many of these people only make 200-300 RMB per month on average (about $30-$45), so many of them have to take measures that I would have once considered below me. Like on the city buses, they get really crowded. It gets hot and cramped. You basically get packed in their like sardines. Actually worse than the shuttles at UCSD. And in addition, everyone smells. So next time I take a packed UCSD shuttle, I do not plan to complain since people here in China have to deal with so much worse on a daily basis.

When I got home, I began reading my Harry Potter book. I got to say, that it's pretty good. Unlike the sixth book, this book is just filled of stuff happening. A very active book. I apparently read it until about 4:30 a.m. Haha I'm crazy. Anyways, that's about it for what I consider my best day in China so far EVER. See you later y'all. haha

July 21, 2007

July 21, 2007

So a lot has been happening I guess. So late last week I got pretty dang sick. Basically, for the whole week, I felt like butt. I had a freaking sinus infection in China. I didn't really like feeling going into work or doing much else. I thought it was surprising though how easy it was to get amoxicillin. My mentor just took me to the university nurse, and she just gave it to me. I think for two boxes, it was about 15 RMB. That's about $2! So cheap. So because of that fever I didn't get much done.

Even though I was sick, I did a surprisingly stupid thing. I went to a freaking weekend trip to Bei Da Hei. Pardon my spelling but I'm not quite sure how to spell it, and I don't think it really makes a difference. What we did there was go to a "beach amusement park" and ate shellfish for one day (yum!), and on the next day we went on another tour to another beach, a chinese aquarium, and to fake parts of the Great Wall. I feel that criticizing this trip would be too negative, but I feel that some things were quite eye openers to my culture in China. So first of all, I got to say, the train ride was really nice. I honestly think I would prefer it to flying; it was that nice! When we arrived at the Bei Da Ha train station, we were supposed to meet our hosts (family) that we were living with. Immediately, we got some problems since apparently foreigners were not allowed to stay with them and only at hotels. I thought this was quite B.S. honestly, but from what I understand, the reasoning is that the Chinese government only lets foreigners stay at hotels and not with families since they want to control the flow information. And to enforce this desire, the Chinese government has imposed a 50000 RMB fine to anyone that violates this rule. I think it's quite interesting how easy it is for the Chinese government to control things if they really wanted to do, like control of information but not safety. I don't know, maybe it was just me. So when we got Bai Da Ha, we immediately came up with some problems. The family was quite interesting honestly. They lied on the most random things I think. Like, apparently they wouldn't get us beer for dinner because they didn't want us to get drunk. They used the excuse that the shellfish that we were eating, which was quite good, would basically make us sick if we drank beer. This is something I never heard of. Another thing that happened was how a freaking tour guide tried to freaking cheat us by saying the price for one place was expensive so that she could get a kick-back (commission) for bringing people to a similar place. I find it interesting how untrustworthy so many people in China can be so that they could make a buck. Oh, and what else happened was that the tour guide scolded us for being late and threatened to leave us behind when it was the boat driver's fault that she chartered for us. And to add onto that, we had to wait about 1.5 hours for some people at a beach. HAHA You know, I think it's quite interesting how Chinese people try to make money when in a tourist area. They'll do anything to make money. I don't see this really as a bad experience with nothing to learn, but I saw that I began to understand the mentality of many of these people. Since many of these people don't make much money, they do anything they can to make some. And I guess this is how the culture is set-up based on the need to cheat one person so that they could be cheated also. It's an endless cycle and I laugh at it. haha I guess this entry about this trip should also be taken with a grain of salt since I was already in a bad mood since I got bit twice by a spider and I was pretty sick with my sinus infection. Didn't get any sleep for 2 nights since been coughing the whole time.

On the bright side though, I did have some good points on the trip. So I mentioned earlier how we went to the beach. Supposedly, this was a really nice beach for China, but too me it was disgusting. I have pictures of it in my pictures section; so you can see for yourself. So why do I think this was actually something good for me. Well, I was able to see how lucky and spoiled I was. I mean, I've been living in San Jose for my whole life (a 40 min. drive to Santa Cruz) and lived for 3 years in San Diego. I got to say, our beaches are spectacular compared to theirs. No competition. And by see this, I feel I have gained a new appreciation for what I have been blessed with. Another experience which I enjoyed quite well on this trip was the train ride. It was amazing how smooth and comfortable it was. I swear, I would possibly rather take a long, comfortable train ride than fly. It was really convenient and really comfortable.

Well I think that was it for the trip. So what else have I seen that was worth noting. Oh, I saw naked boys and girls (not in the pedophile sense) at the beach. i thought it was really interesting how again I was blessed with so much to be able to simply have swim suits on the beach in America. Ummmm..... The shellfish was really good and fresh. I went swimming with some of my co-workers on Thursday. I realized there that many people in China do not know how to swim. And most of them first learn a form of breaststroke, which I consider the 2nd hardest stroke to learn. I mean, I think I am credible on this topic since I've been teaching swim lessons for about 5 years. So when I was there, I tried teaching one of my co-workers, Sun Yuanhua, how to swim freestyle. Oh another thing. Many times when I walk along the street I see girls holding hands. At first I saw this as a display of affection and homosexuality. I was so surprised to see this since I always thought that the Chinese people were so conservative and not allow such public displays of affection. When I saw this, I immediately went to my roommate, Ryan, about this since he knows so much about this topic of homosexuality, for him being one also. And I learned that being queer is actually very horrendous for many people in China. Holding hands was more of a different form of showing friendship. This was quite interesting how different our culture was from the Chinese culture.

Other than that, I don't think there's much else to talk about other than I'm getting my Harry Potter book later today! Woot woot! So goodbye y'all and I'll fill you guys in later with what I've seen and learned.