On Sunday my “brother” and I went back to our host family’s apartment for dinner. This time, we took the bus by ourselves. In an effort to halt the alarming number of cars driving on the road, the government has made public transportation, especially gonggong qiche very inexpensive. A regular ticket is only 1 yuan, and regular bus riders can purchase a multiple-use card and get a 60% discount on the fare. Taking the bus is cheap, but it is incredibly time consuming. In a car, it’s not that difficult to weave in and out of traffic in order to cut people off. However, buses are unwieldy, and taxis and other cars routinely make it frustrating for buses to get where they need to go. They don’t seem to understand that there are many people in the bus who all are in a rush to get to where they need to go. Also, there is not much courtesy from the passengers who all clamor to sit down without considering who is around them. At one stop, an elderly lady got on the bus, but no one even gave her a second glance. The twenty-ish year old guys just kept talking away with their shirts rolled above their bellies. So I got up.
As soon as we got there, “Mom” and “Grandma” brought out the jiaozi making supplies, which consisted of a huge slab of dough and the filling. Very simple but incredibly delicious. “Dad” started rolling out the dough to make the wrapping while we started to fill them and fold. It was a lot of fun making them and especially eating them. “Grandpa” made a spicy dip made from ginger, garlic, vinegar, and chili paste. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. After dinner I played a few simple pieces on my violin for our “brother” and we took him downstairs for a stroll outside in the comfortable dusk.
Monday was my first Chinese brush painting class since last week we took the HSK, the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, sort of like the Chinese equivalent of the TOEFL. Most people gave up and walked out in the middle of the test because it was so hard, but I stayed and just made up answers. Because we weren’t at the last class, about 6 of us didn’t have the required supplies (I guess they didn’t think it was necessary to tell us that we needed them) so we went to the post office to buy brushes, ink, and paper. The class was very frustrating since they didn’t really teach us how to paint; they merely drew the strokes on the board and basically told us to copy what we saw. Occasionally they would come demonstrate for us, but that would mostly involve criticizing our mistakes and telling us to correct them without explaining how. They also doted on the star calligrapher and left us not-so-good painters in the back to struggle on our own. I’m going back tomorrow since I already have all the stuff.
On Wednesday, we saw a wushu demonstration from the self-proclaimed “Iron Man,” a master who has trained for 20 years and apparently is immune from pain. He started by snapping a pair of regular wooden chopsticks by stabbing them into his neck. Then he got two volunteers, one to hold a sword to this throat while the other smashed a wooded pole on his back. Of course it broke and of course he didn’t feel a thing. He also kicked a brick in half with his bare foot while standing on a bed of nails; chopped up a brick into bite-size pieces with his bare hand; broke the handle of a porcelain spoon with his business card; and had his assistant swing a wooden pole at both his neck and head. They both broke. My favorite was his “speed” demonstration: he took a regular needle and threw it (more like launched it) at a pane of glass, making a hole in the glass and popping the balloon behind it. I’m not sure if I was more impressed or frightened by him.
That night, because it was the 4th of July, we decided to go to “The Sauce” for dinner. Others also decided on Western fare and headed to the nearby McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut. After being in China for 2 and a half weeks, it was definitely time for something that wasn’t rice, sweet and sour pork, or bok choy. The service was pretty bad. We ordered 2 pizzas and were told the wait would be 25 minutes. Who knew that it would be over an hour before we got to eat. I’m convinced that they only have 1 pizza oven. It was still really satisfying though. A bunch of people went to Propaganda to celebrate with other Americans, but I wasn’t really in the mood to go out. Basically Beijing nightlife revolves around telling your taxi driver either “Wudaokou” or “Sanlitunr,” both of which take you straight to where you need to go.
On Thursday we watched a movie class called Aiqing Mala Tang, or “Spicy Love Soup.” I thought it was quite similar to Love Actually. It’s about a couple that’s about to get married with five different love/divorce/marriage stories intertwined in it. It was ok.
Saturday was reserved for visiting the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs are boring. It was great to see the first site, but the second two were pretty much the same things. At the second site we went underground to see the emperor’s coffin with his TWO empresses. The day was sweltering and everyone ended up exhausted by the time we were done. It was mostly a bunch of walking. Some others decided to go to the Summer Palace, but since that’s easier to get to, it’s an easy Sunday trip to make.
The entrance to the tombs.
A soldier guarding the path to the tombs.
A temple.
Me with some third year teachers.
No comments:
Post a Comment