Let the Festivities Begin!
Yesterday was another Friday and it came and went. This week my Friday was a pretty relaxed Friday in terms of the level of excitement I experienced, but that is not to say I did not have fun. Come to think of it my Friday was full of a lot of little different experiences.
My first experience of the afternoon was at 3:30. After I talked to Taylor about his job search I headed for the little plaza Area near the building I attend classes in. My plan was to meet my new friend Wendy, 薛雯婷. Her name means graceful clouds ... or something along those lines. Anyways we met in the same place where we met for the first time. She brought a little Chinese dictionary because I told her I had been looking for a traditional character dictionary, but had been unable to find in Beijing. I don't care how many times people tell me I am on the mainland it seems ridiculous that all the traditional characters dictionaries I have found have not been very. I mean China is much closer to Taiwan or Hong Kong than the U.S. will ever be! ... Geographically speaking. Politics are such a pain in my ass!
After she gave me my little gift I thought it would have been a little awkward to just accept her gift and say goodbye, so I tried to invite to get some coffee or something, but we ended up skateboarding instead. I was happy with this decision too, so we went back to where we met and skateboarded around a little. I thought it would have been pretty ridiculous to have her sit and watch. Plus I would have felt a little weird, so I suggested that she try and learn, and so the skateboarding class began. It was pretty fun and she picked up things pretty quickly. By the end she was rolling around and turning and tic-tac-ing and everything. I was impressed. It was interesting to watch also because as she was having fun all the older Chinese people passing by would look from me to her and from her to me with a confused look on their faces wondering why she was on the skateboard and not me.
After we had both had our fill of skateboarding we went back to my apartment so we could listen to some music cds and watch some breakdancing videos. I didn't realize she enjoyed beatboxing and breaking until she scolded me for not inviting her to the breakdancing competition I went to last Sunday. After watching some Massive Monkees breakdancing I let her listen to Rahzel's If You're Mother Only Knew. I think she was pretty surprised by the song. If you guys have heard it then you guys should definitely give it a listen because this guy is beatboxing and singing at the same time. I think it has become a standard by which beatboxers measure themselves now. During intermission at the breakdancing competition there was a beatboxer who performed the same song.
After Wendy left it was time for me to meet my teacher at the local bookshop. I skated over to the bookstore and met. We spent a little while looking at books and we found a cool copy of Animal Farm by George Orwell with both English and Chinese. My teacher, 刘郁, was nice enough to get me a copy of the book since she had a gift certificate. For one of my homework assignments I wrote a short essay about Animal Farm, so she knew I liked the book. I told her that after I got back to the states we could read the book together. She could read English and I could read Chinese, then we could write essays about the book. Please refrain from dork comments until I get back to states. 刘郁，谢谢你买给我动物农庄！下一辈子我会做牛做马报答你！
We were planning to go to our classmates Christmas party, so we stopped at McDonalds to eat dinner. We chatted over our meals and some new soy bean shakes. I didn't think about the meal when we ate, but after watching some of Super Size Me I am starting to wonder what is inside of me now. Especially seeing a jar of McDonalds french fries look just fine after 10 weeks ... watch the DVD for yourself!
The Christmas party was cool. I have a couple pictures, but I am going to wait to get the rest of the pictures from my classmates until I post any of them. The party was like any old typical party except that the director of program came. This was a change of pace from the rest of the IUP parties. Usually our teachers show up, but he doesn't. I guess he figured since he lives in the same apartment complex and it was Christmas party that he should show up. In any case he is a nice guy, so it was cool that he showed up and socialized with us. I think it helps us bridge the gap between him and us.
The party was fun and it gave me a chance to meet some new people and chat in English. I ended up meeting a girl who works at That's Beijing Magazine. I did not stay at the party too late because I was a little tired and wanted to get some rest. Skateboarding home gave me a little energy, so I decided to skateboarding around campus for a little bit. I found some neat places to skateboard which I would like hit up during the daytime. After skating around I went back home past 二效门. Thinking of Kagan I looked at the gate for a while and tried to figure out how to climb it and get a good picture at the same time. Reality kicked in and I thought the potential risk of injury and Chinese prisons.
I just looked outside and didn't see any snow. My friend told me it snowed a little bit earlier today, but I am still waiting for the big dump that my landlord told me was going to come. I am crossing my fingers now as I am getting ready to head to bed.
My first experience of the afternoon was at 3:30. After I talked to Taylor about his job search I headed for the little plaza Area near the building I attend classes in. My plan was to meet my new friend Wendy, 薛雯婷. Her name means graceful clouds ... or something along those lines. Anyways we met in the same place where we met for the first time. She brought a little Chinese dictionary because I told her I had been looking for a traditional character dictionary, but had been unable to find in Beijing. I don't care how many times people tell me I am on the mainland it seems ridiculous that all the traditional characters dictionaries I have found have not been very. I mean China is much closer to Taiwan or Hong Kong than the U.S. will ever be! ... Geographically speaking. Politics are such a pain in my ass!
After she gave me my little gift I thought it would have been a little awkward to just accept her gift and say goodbye, so I tried to invite to get some coffee or something, but we ended up skateboarding instead. I was happy with this decision too, so we went back to where we met and skateboarded around a little. I thought it would have been pretty ridiculous to have her sit and watch. Plus I would have felt a little weird, so I suggested that she try and learn, and so the skateboarding class began. It was pretty fun and she picked up things pretty quickly. By the end she was rolling around and turning and tic-tac-ing and everything. I was impressed. It was interesting to watch also because as she was having fun all the older Chinese people passing by would look from me to her and from her to me with a confused look on their faces wondering why she was on the skateboard and not me.
After we had both had our fill of skateboarding we went back to my apartment so we could listen to some music cds and watch some breakdancing videos. I didn't realize she enjoyed beatboxing and breaking until she scolded me for not inviting her to the breakdancing competition I went to last Sunday. After watching some Massive Monkees breakdancing I let her listen to Rahzel's If You're Mother Only Knew. I think she was pretty surprised by the song. If you guys have heard it then you guys should definitely give it a listen because this guy is beatboxing and singing at the same time. I think it has become a standard by which beatboxers measure themselves now. During intermission at the breakdancing competition there was a beatboxer who performed the same song.
After Wendy left it was time for me to meet my teacher at the local bookshop. I skated over to the bookstore and met. We spent a little while looking at books and we found a cool copy of Animal Farm by George Orwell with both English and Chinese. My teacher, 刘郁, was nice enough to get me a copy of the book since she had a gift certificate. For one of my homework assignments I wrote a short essay about Animal Farm, so she knew I liked the book. I told her that after I got back to the states we could read the book together. She could read English and I could read Chinese, then we could write essays about the book. Please refrain from dork comments until I get back to states. 刘郁，谢谢你买给我动物农庄！下一辈子我会做牛做马报答你！
We were planning to go to our classmates Christmas party, so we stopped at McDonalds to eat dinner. We chatted over our meals and some new soy bean shakes. I didn't think about the meal when we ate, but after watching some of Super Size Me I am starting to wonder what is inside of me now. Especially seeing a jar of McDonalds french fries look just fine after 10 weeks ... watch the DVD for yourself!
The Christmas party was cool. I have a couple pictures, but I am going to wait to get the rest of the pictures from my classmates until I post any of them. The party was like any old typical party except that the director of program came. This was a change of pace from the rest of the IUP parties. Usually our teachers show up, but he doesn't. I guess he figured since he lives in the same apartment complex and it was Christmas party that he should show up. In any case he is a nice guy, so it was cool that he showed up and socialized with us. I think it helps us bridge the gap between him and us.
The party was fun and it gave me a chance to meet some new people and chat in English. I ended up meeting a girl who works at That's Beijing Magazine. I did not stay at the party too late because I was a little tired and wanted to get some rest. Skateboarding home gave me a little energy, so I decided to skateboarding around campus for a little bit. I found some neat places to skateboard which I would like hit up during the daytime. After skating around I went back home past 二效门. Thinking of Kagan I looked at the gate for a while and tried to figure out how to climb it and get a good picture at the same time. Reality kicked in and I thought the potential risk of injury and Chinese prisons.
I just looked outside and didn't see any snow. My friend told me it snowed a little bit earlier today, but I am still waiting for the big dump that my landlord told me was going to come. I am crossing my fingers now as I am getting ready to head to bed.
posted by Jon Keto at
11:21 PM
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