The Dangers of Sangria

Oh, man. Where to begin? It’s been a little while since I’ve posted. What else is new? I guess we can start with today because well, it’s the easiest way. I’m propped up in bed, on the floor. It broke if I never mentioned that. I was cleaning underneath it and had moved the bed out. I knew it was on its way. The back piece just fell off. I’ve kept the awesomely uncomfortable mattress on the floor ever since. Korean style. I think. Started to feel a cold coming on late last night. Again, what else is new? But I refuse to get sick. Been using all methods I have available to me to prevent it. Not doing it. REFUSE.

Today was um, interesting? I was excited because I didn’t have to teach. That’s always a plus in my book. We headed to the Beijing Science and Technology Museum, which I guess I will have to check out on my own as you’ll soon find out. First off, didn’t get to go with one of my classes. Typical, and always a bummer. At least I was able to run into them on numerous occasions today. So we got there, passed through two security checks. More than an airport. No idea why after seeing this place. I’ll sum it real quick. It sucked. I felt bad for the kids. The place was full of ravaging children just running wild without supervision. There was no new technology to be seen in the Children’s Paradise. Yeah, we didn’t get to go into the real part of the museum. The school had decided the kids wouldn’t understand. So that apparently means they don’t even get the opportunity to attempt such. Everything was old and a lot of the things were broken. It was stupid. I’ll give you an example. You could practice your hygiene there. They had a big mouth of teeth with some rubbery toothbrush like thing that you could practice brushing teeth with. What? Why? There was a house like structure with rubber building blocks in which you could attempt to complete the structure by adding some parts of the roof and walls. Science and technology? Where? The place was like some big, old play place. The coolest thing there was the bubbles. Still old and basic, but at least it was fun. They give you these big metal circular things with handles where you could make some massive bubbles with the soapy solution. Sad.

The nice part about it was that the class we went with had half their kids missing. Probably sick as most of the class was. My roommate and I just had to pick two kids each and take them around the place and do whatever we wanted. I picked a girl that seemed to take to me (my roommate’s class) and a kid that seemed cool. The kid was too crazy, though fortunately I didn’t get to experience that, so the teacher had taken him back a short while later. Fine with me, saved me from any trouble I may have run into later. The girl was cool, though. She held my hand everywhere we went and made sure I was going with her in the parts where I could. I’ll explain that a little better. They had a few jungle gym type areas in the place, but adults weren’t allowed. Now maybe you can explain that to me? Supervision vs. no supervision? Hmm. What are they trying to do? Recreate ‘Lord of the Flies’? More stupidity. Cici was fun, though. It was interesting. My roommate and I stuck together with our kids, but because I just had responsibility of the one, I kind of felt like a parent for the day. Haha. So I had a little fun, I suppose. Beat teaching.

I guess next up is Hong Kong. You may or may not know I had to go there two/three weeks ago for my visa. It was fully paid for aside from meals, so after some misunderstandings with my company, I was cool with it. Free trip! I just wish I had been able to stay a little longer. I was only there for a day and a half. With all the running around I had to do, I didn’t get to really experience anything.

I had to wake up at 5:50 the day of the trip to catch an 8 am flight. Thanks company. That was thoughtful. I had a list of other people I was going with, but I didn’t recognize any of the names. Guess I wasn’t the only one that didn’t like the idea of a work visa with my company. While waiting for the flight, I didn’t see anyone I recognized so for a while there it was just like I was taking the trip by myself. Shortly before arrival, I was approached by the girl that went, so finally met up with someone. I actually realized later I knew her from a long time ago, but hardly recognized her. After we landed, I ran into another guy I had met once or twice before from other visa extensions. He’s a cool guy so I was happy to be accompanied by at least one non idiot. They actually weren’t a bad group of people for the most part. Fortunately. The plane landed in Shenzhen because it was cheaper for my company to do that, followed by taking a train to Hong Kong. It was a nice train ride. Shenzhen seemed fairly scenic and beautiful in some parts. Lots of greenery. Stop. Actually, I’m not going to bother with all the unnecessary details of that trip. I’m going to sum it up real quick. I had to do a lot of running around and parts of it felt like I was in the ‘Amazing Race’. I think we lost, but I’m not sure. There was my group, and some couple that we never saw after the plane. Going to take care of the visas was interesting to say the least. Basically, I had to lie to the government. My company even gave me a copy of the document I had to fill out with what to say. Pretty ridiculous. As many people have told me, T.I.C. This is China. Some of the things that go on absolutely blow my mind. I think that’s good enough for now. Though my visit was very brief, I enjoyed Hong Kong . It was so clean. I could breathe. The weather was awesome. You’ll be hearing more about Hong Kong soon enough. Don’t you worry.

Oh, I witnessed an interesting event while going through customs in Shenzhen on the way home. I saw one security woman approach a man and another member of security was coming right up as well. Apparently, there was some trouble about this taped up box he had. The guy was real angry. He had this look on his face liked he wanted to kill the security guards. The box was placed on the ground. One of his pals came up, snatched the box, and ran. Security pursued, but ever so briefly. The second guy threw it off to another friend, and he ran off with it. Some kind of box relay. The most astonishing factor in this story is that security stop chasing them! Why? I was so mystified by the whole situation. It was that easy? Crazy. The flight home took a little while. Our flight got delayed 3 times. We were supposed to leave around 8, but didn’t end up taking off until after 11. When we finally got on the plane, we then had to sit and wait again. I guess that was the third time. I don’t even remember at this point. Originally, we should have been getting home around 12. Instead, I strolled into my apartment after 3 am. Hats off to my company for the late flight.

I went to a bar a couple weeks ago and ended up taking an unusual mode of transportation home. In this particular area, it’s extremely difficult to get a cab because it’s a really popular area for shopping, bars, clubs, and restaurants. I was on the prowl, but you walk towards the direction cabs are coming to get closer and get past some people and there’s always someone else. Always. I just wanted to go home at that point, it was after 2 in the morning. I had even talked to a few ‘black taxis’, which I rarely do. These taxis are not taxis at all. They’re simply people riding around in their cars trying to make a buck. Sometimes, it’s someone just going in a specific direction looking to make some money on the way. More often than not, it’s people treating their car like it’s a taxi. They typically charge way too much, taking advantage of the lack of taxis, but you can haggle with them. On this night, I wasn’t having any luck and getting the price I wanted. This young guy had pulled up beside me in a rickshaw/carriage thing attached to a bike. I guess it’s the modern rickshaw. They’re real common and people will approach you on them all the time. This guy had asked me, but I was laughing at the idea of it. Keep in mind, this is in Chinese. I told him where my home was just for the fun of it, but continued to laugh and told him it was too far. I really found it quite amusing. I also told him that those bikes were too slow. They are motorized, but even so. He assured me it was fast, and hung around even though I continued to talk to black taxis. He was persistent. After going down in price a few times for me, he was at 40rmb, I was at 30rmb. That’s where I had started. He kept saying it was only another 10rmb. Finally, I got to a point and said screw it. Let’s go. Haha. I figured what the hell, right? I had never ridden one before, slow or not, it would be fun. And it was. He was cool too. We talked a bit here and there, and it was actually a pretty fast ride. It might have been another 5-10 minutes than a taxi would have taken me and a legit taxi would have cost about 25rmb, but it was totally worth it. I enjoyed it so much, I threw the guy 50rmb. When in China!

Went to a zoo a little while back. No, not the Beijing Zoo. I don’t ever plan on going there again. This was called Beijing Wildlife Park. Much nicer. I took the trip with my school. As usual, I didn’t get to go with my class. Wasn’t terrible. I didn’t have to do anything. I just wasn’t planning on letting them slow me down. I wanted to make sure I saw all or close to all of what there was to see. It ended up being a good thing that my roommate and I stuck with them for a little while. We were able to bail later and see all we didn’t get to see without them, so it was fine. Again, I really don’t feel like going into details much here. It was a while ago now, and recounting all that info for a blog long overdue just doesn’t seem worth it at the moment.

The last thing I’m going to mention is the Chateau Star River Four Seasons Club. Had I wandered earlier on this area, I probably would have visited this place on numerous occasions. The Chateau Star River is an A list apartment complex near my home. It’s one of if not the nicest area to live in Beijing. Big money. Lots of famous people and celebrities live there from what I’ve been told. I can see why. This was last Sunday, 5/27.

The day before, I had decided to make some sangria. I had this bottle of red wine sitting in my room for a while, and I wanted to make some good use of it. I checked out a few recipes online, and ultimately just made my own concoction. Ingredients – bottle of red wine, sugar, some sprite, Bacardi Breezer (I didn’t feel like buying a whole bottle of rum so I figured one of those mixed bottle drinks would work, haha….), lemons, oranges, mango, banana, apple, and kiwi. Sounds pretty awesome, I know. And it was. I started drinking by myself earlier in the evening, but then my roommates came home so I offered them some as well. I mentioned going to see a late showing of ‘Men In Black 3’, so we continued to drink and ended up going. We polished off about 2 and half bottles of red wine. First off , the movie was fairly dumb as expected. I couldn’t finish it, though. I made it through about an hour, before I was starting to doze off. The problem with that was, being inside the theater; I was feeling sick and getting the spins. I really just needed some fresh air. I was drunk, but being inside watching the movie was making it worse. I had to bail. I was ok outside. So, I walked home and passed out.

I’ll admit I was a little hung over on Sunday. But wait! It’s because of that hangover that I went for a long walk when I woke up and discovered the Chateau Star River Four Seasons Club. See? Drinking leads to discovery. I’m kidding, but seriously. It’s basically a country club type place. It’s where the Chinese hide all the fresh air in Beijing. I ‘snuck’ in the first time I went there. Just walked through some shrubbery. I honestly have no idea if I’m allowed to wander in there or not. I’m thinking no, but who knows? There was virtually nobody in the place. It was quiet, with some open fields, lakes, and ponds. Really nice little area. I chilled there for a while before heading back to grab my camera, eat lunch, and return a little later. I made sure to exit through the main entrance so that the security guard could see me. It doesn’t hurt to be cautious, right? That way, he saw me exit. So when I returned later, if there was any doubt, he would probably remember seeing a foreigner wander out. Haha. Upon my return, I strolled right through the main entrance, paying the security guards no mind. When you look like you know what you’re doing and where you’re going, people don’t tend to question you. I’m assuming this is a place that is probably only available to residents of the Chateau Star River apartments. That would explain the lack of people there. But so what? Maybe I was visiting a friend or looking to move there? Or maybe I got the foreigner advantage and they just assume I’m wealthy? Or it doesn’t matter. Whatever. I got in, that’s all that matters.

Oh, and while in there I met some kids. I had passed them and they said hello in English. I asked them in Chinese if they could speak English and they all claimed they could. Though, I don’t think they spoke that well. We ended up using Chinese the whole time. My Chinese has improved despite my lack of studying for the past few weeks, so I was able to communicate most things and understand most of what they were saying to me. I ran into them again later, and they were just wandering around trying to find something fun to do. Well, I had my shoulder bag with me and always have my little squidge Frisbee in there, so I figured I would offer it to them. I told them they could just give it back to me later, but they wanted me to join. So why not? I spent between an hour and two hours playing Frisbee and walking around the place with them. I got some time to myself earlier, so it was cool. They were nice kids and happy to be hanging out with a foreigner. Haha. Even in my search for some respite from the city, I can’t escape children. It’s ironic.

I walked around the apartments last night with a friend from my gym. Man, I got really depressed. It’s like a different world there. They got lush greenery growing all over. The landscaping around the apartments is beautiful. The little ponds are clean with lily pads and tall grass growing around. I know money isn’t everything, but I have to admit, it would be nice to live there. The sidewalks are paved nicely. There’s no trash strewn about. GAH! You get the point. I plan on bringing some beers in there and playing some cards in the evening one of these nights.

It’s been a while. If you’ve been waiting patiently, thank you. If you forgot about my blogs, it’s understandable. My priorities have been elsewhere. I’ll be discussing that soon enough.

-JD-