Is there supposed to be jelly in this drink?

History runs deep.
Confucianism is responsible today for the Chinese having certain rituals they must perform. This can range from obligatorily offering someone something to drink, to sending cards and continually expressing hospitality with clients throughout the year even though a business may have decided to pursue a deal with another company.
Daoism is what causes the Chinese to wait out problems instead of actively trying to fix them. As a male engineer, I might be at odds with both of these philosophies from time to time. There will be many more situations when I am frustrated or at odds with things here, but I have to realize I can't change China – they've been doing things this way for a very long time. I'm sure I'll have a chance to expound upon these ideas throughout the year, so if you don't get it, just wait – I'm sure I'll confuse you even more later.

What shall I do on a free day? Obviously the answer is to learn how to solve a Rubik's cube. A fellow soon-to-be teacher (Josh, who will go to a different city than I) purchased a knock-off cube here. I figured I had a couple hours to kill before anybody else was doing anything fun. Josh taught me how to solve it using 4 or 5 different algorithms. I finally managed to do the cube by myself (without any help from Josh) 2 days later.

Random picture of a rooftop garden, taken from a bus on a clear day. Pretty sweet!

At 11am, a few of us rolled out to the art district on the other side of town. After a little subway detour, we found a taxi driver to take us to the 789 art district. We were hungry when we got there, so we found a reasonably priced place that sold quesedillas (translated as “pancakes”) in addition to more common Chinese cuisine. I had Chinese curry – it wasn't nearly as good as Indian curry, but I'm a little biased towards Krishna or Deep India back in Cincinnati. I took some photos of the sculptures around there, but we didn't have time to do too much exploring within the district.

Not where we ate, but it reminded me of America

Bottle Caps

Damien Hirst Exhibit

With the rest of the group needing to get back to the hotel before 5:30, we took a bus to the closest subway entrance instead of a taxi – all the taxis were stuck in traffic going the opposite direction, and they weren't using the meters at that time of day. We took the subway all the way across the city, but we still needed to take a bus to our hotel... so we waited. And waited. Finally the right bus did come, but it was so packed, and there were so many of us, that I elected to stay off and take one for the team. I waited around for another bus, but when it didn't come, I started walking. Altogether, I probably walked a mile or two back to our hotel and got some good exercise at least.

Today (Sunday) I visited the BeiJing International Christian Fellowship for church. It was probably the last English service I'll attend for a very long time. This coming Saturday I'll be taking a 7-hour train to ChangChun!

On a side note, I played foursquare today with a volleyball. We had a fun time! Oh yeah - and I found a bunch of suspended jellies in my Minute Maid grape drink today. I'm just going to assume that's normal.

We are Now in a Country of Pirates

I stepped out of the local Wu-Mart (not Walmart) and found a man selling his wares of definitely-not-legit DVDs. The thing about intellectual property here is that it basically does not exist. I see knockoff items everywhere and there's no guarantee that what I see will even work. Vendors will be one place one day, but not come back the following day, so returning a defective item will be much harder. This is only one of the difficulties we face in purchasing things in this country – I haven't said anything about the language yet!

Apart from the pirates, I'm living out of a hotel. I do my laundry in my sink, and have to wait 2-3 days for it to dry. Last week, aside from visiting the great wall, we did 4 days worth of morning and afternoon classes. It was pretty intensive, but the great wall trip was a nice break. We got there and it was like being in a steam room – the humidity was through the roof, and my camera lens did not unfog itself for a couple hours. It was definitely a workout though! There are many many steps to climb before even getting up to the wall, plus once you get up there, the wall is full of steps of assorted sizes. Some are hugenormous and some are annoyingly tinyful. The small steps are the ones you have to worry about tripping over, as they're harder to notice.

Training is going well. After a week's worth of learning about classroom teaching, I'm learning about Asian Culture and Communication, which is a welcome intellectual break. Today I will actually be taking a state test to fulfill certain requirements, upon which my work permit hinges. No big deal, really.  

Landing

Ahoy y'all!
After 4 flights, layovers, and a bus ride, I have finally arrived yesterday at the hotel where we will be training. The first thing I noticed about China was the smell. There are a few smells that just smell like China. Don't expect this post to be largely coherent, as my body is still adjusting to the complete time swap.
It's 5:14pm as I write this, and today was the second time I've ever been on a subway. I still have no idea how subways work. Public transit is just crazy.

Today I watched three of my teammates eat freshly grilled scorpions - they were squirming before being grilled. I decided not to participate for a few reasons, but one of them (aside from not having change to pay for them) was because I wasn't really into eating scorpions. Apparently they taste good and crunchy with some spicy powder... so if I ever try to eat some, I'll be sure to add the spicy pepper powder!

Earlier today before our meeting started, I went with a couple guys to look for a park where we can run or work out, with limited success. We quickly discovered that you have to watch your step in Beijing - dogs can make the sidewalk pretty messy. I believe we will soon be ready to survive the perils of the fire swamp, since I don't believe that r-o-u-s-es exist. Back to the story: One of us saw a patch of green from a people bridge that we were using as a vantage point. Eager to reach this field of joy, we tried walking directly to it. Sadly, there were various walls blocking us from getting to it from that direction, so we headed back to the hotel the best way we knew. I think tonight we will track down that field and throw an ultimate disc.

Good Morning, America! -Andrew