Sichuan for some Szechuan

So I managed to book a flight to Chongqing leaving tomorrow. My roommates and I are going to meet up with a friend of mine from Miami (thanks Amit) as he's studying there for the whole year. He's actually been really helpful - he's picking us up from the airport, he's reserved out hotel room, and is letting us tag along on his trip to Chengdu on Thursday.

I'll be in Chongqing and Chengdu for the next week and am exciting to go to Sichuan Province. It's supposed to be the region of China that has the best food (Szechuan). Can't wait to get my hands on some Szechuan (Sichuan) chicken! That should be a nice change up from Beijing food.

I'm really excited to see another city in China. Chongqing is the biggest city in China I believe with over 31 million people. I guess if I thought Beijing was too many people, this is going to be off the charts.

I'm feeling a little bit better, the antibiotics seem to be kicking in now. Hopefully by tomorrows flight I'll be 100% ready to go for my week of traveling. Even if I'm not, I'm still going to have a good time.

My roommates went to the Great Wall today, but I wasn't feeling great and decided to stay back and get better for this trip. I'm not too disappointed though, the great wall is 45 minutes away and I can go practically any day I want. I'm sure I can convince them to go next month with me. I want to see the wall covered in snow anyways.

Hopefully I'll have a good trip to Sichuan province. I can't wait to eat the food and see the sights. Make sure to check back in a week for the pictures of my trip.

Bound to Happen

I knew I was going to get sick at some point this semester, but who knew so early? I've been struggling with a fever, sinus problems, and frequent bathroom visits for the last week or so.

I'm not only physically sick, but I'm sick of the food. I know I was praising the "hole in the wall" restaurant just last week, but if you eat two meals a day at any place you are bound to get sick. I thought I'd switch it up and go to KFC tonight but that turned out to be a bad move as I got undercooked chicken.

Looks like one thing is for sure - I'm making my way over to the grocery store tomorrow and loading up on all different types of soups. Those seem to be the only thing I can stomach right now.

Hopefully this is only one of a couple posts where I dog on Beijing, but right now I'm not the happiest of people. I did go to Tianamen square and eat Peking Roast Duck the other day (yes, I'm not letting my sickness get in the way of my adventures --- maybe that's why I'm still sick...) Videos and pics to come soon.

Next week I don't have school so hopefully I can go to the travel agent tomorrow and book a flight to Hong Kong or Sichuan province. Although traveling during National Holiday week is supposed to be like traveling around Christmas time in the states, I'd still like to take my chances.

Seems appropriate to leave you with this ending,
Cough.

Bon Appetite

So I've been here for over a week now and have a pretty good idea of what the food is like. But before I get to my food reviews, here's a little bit of exciting news.

I had orientation a few days ago and met a lot of people from all over the world. How would this experience be complete without a fellow Indian by my side? Surely enough, he was there. Our eyes connected from across the room, we slowly moved towards each other, everything around us moved in slow motion...no, I'm kidding. I go to get my bag to leave and lo and behold our friend is sitting right next to my bag.

At first glance I was absolutely shocked --- his name was Ajay Pai. You have to be kidding me I thought to myself. What are the chances that there would be another Konkani, let alone Pai in my program at Beida?? We got to talking and yes he is Konkani and yes this is a miracle of God. I hope to hang out with him soon and brush up on my Konkani speaking skills. Who knew I would come to China and get better at Konkani?

Besides all the excitement that is still pumping through my veins from that night, I've gotten a pretty good feel on Chinese cuisine. In one or my earlier posts I told you that I got a great meal at this "hole in the wall" place, when really I failed to notice the real hole in the wall place right across the street. This place is a diamond in the rough. Excellent food, great service, and of course amazing prices.

I eat there at least once a day, if not twice. I've gotten pretty fond, and frankly almost sick, of the pork dumplings. At this place they are made fresh to order and it really does make a huge difference. I've come a long way from those frozen dumpling packets I used to buy at Jungle Jim's.

I also immediately fell in love with the fried rice and noodles. Now I'm not that big of a noodles guy, but I just got back from eating some fried noodles with pork and is was delicious, or as I tell the owners, hao chi.

The slight, and by slight I mean of the slightest possible meaning, downside to all this food loving is the effects on my stomach. Even though I grew up on all those spicy Indian dishes, there is something about the food here that doesn't always sit well. I'll leave the rest up to the imagination, but no I haven't had to take an Pepto Bismol yet.

Now that I think about it, the area of my Mandarin that has improved the most is in the food setting. I can virtually go sit down, eat a meal, pay, thank them, and walk out without a word of English. I would be hard pressed to find any other circumstance in which I was able to successfully speak Mandarin the whole time, but this may be due to the lack of English speaking people over here. That'll be the topic of discussion for the next post though.

All-in-all the food is great. A little different than China One buffet on a Saturday afternoon, but I'm not complaining. I can say one thing though to set the record straight - people here, at least from my experience, do not eat scorpion and seahorse. Only tourists like me do, check the videos on Picasa! You can't come to China and not eat those things! Next thing you know I'm going to say that about eating dog, poor Moti...

Here's to some good eats!

When the Sun Goes Down

Looking back at the last post, it feels like weeks ago. I can't believe I've only been here for 5 days. I've gotten into such a routine of waking up, getting breakfast, checking out the town, and then going out at night. So far, it's been pretty great.

Let's focus a little bit on Beijing nightlife. The last two nights I had two completely opposite experiences, one I loved and one I hated. Let me back track and give you the whole story...

A few days ago Drew and I were eating lunch in a small "authentic" restaurant when we came across a guy named Adam from New York. He's in his mid 20's, has been studying Chinese for several years and is virtually fluent, and is studying ancient Chinese at Beida.

We friended Adam, told him we'll all go out sometime soon - that night was Thursday. We hit up the Houhai bar district and were walking down a small hutong (alley). We were in search of that bangin club/bar that was filled with people, but ended up going into this restaurant with only about 10 people inside.

The waitress told Adam, all in Chinese of course, that the restaurant was just about to close. Adam said a few words, the owner who just happened to be sitting around, invited all of us in for free food and drinks. We ended up hanging out there for the rest of the night!

The food and drinks were plentiful and the conversation was good (Adam acted as translator). The owner seemed to be some sort of local police, he was trying to convince us that he was Chinese FBI, but he was just trying to get a rise out of us. It was really funny, Adam would turn to us and explain what this man was saying and then add in a "This guy is such a F*ckhead" at the end and then would just start laughing and the Chinese man would laugh with all of us because he thought he was a cool, funny host.

Normally I don't think it's very cool to make fun of people to their face in a language that they don't understand, but this man deserved it. He was saying some pretty bad things about the US and wasn't willing to accept our views. Anyways, the night continued on and to cap it all off, the owner called some random server and had him play some local folk music from Western China.

It was CRAZY! It's not the first time that I've felt such emotion from music but it was amazing. It reminded me of when my friends and I would get back after a late night, set the lights low, and listen to nice, chill music. You don't realize what's going on around you, the music engulfs everything. This is where I was on Thursday night. After the man was done playing his beautiful music, I snapped out of my hypnotic state and felt like I had just slept for 12 hours.

Needless to say, Thursday was the night that I loved. It is probably a night that I will never get again as long as I'm in Beijing. Friday night, last night, was a little bit of a different tale though. We went to a local club called Propaganda. It's right here in Wudaokou, so it was basically tourist city. While it was cool to make a few good friends from Amsterdam and Switzerland, the club just wasn't my scene.

It was too crowded, too expensive, and had to many people that thought they were the shit. Surprisingly it seemed to be the wealthy youth of China that seemed to have their noses in the air the highest. I bumped into a man, walking past one of the private tables, and he said something I immediately understood. This exchange had no words, but I understood that he was saying, "What the hell did you just bump into ME for. Get outta here before I throw you out of this club."

Looks like some things are the same no matter where you live in this world. You'll still have clubs that are way too packed, people bumping and grinding all night, and way to many people that have a fake sense of authority. Wasn't a great night and I ended up leaving pretty early, but I'm glad I had the experience. It'll be interesting to see how it will be next time I go back there, because I'm sure I will at least one more time this semester, since my roommates seemed to have a decent time.

There's my first piece on nightlife. Can't wait to explore more of the different bar districts around. There are definitely some really nice places where I could see myself loving, the problem is finding those places.


On a side note, I think this blog business is going pretty well. I see myself analyzing things much more in my head though and don't really have the will to type it all out. Maybe I'll look into Vlogging (video blogging). That may be a suitable alternative in which I can dive a little deeper into the emotions and questions I have for this city.

Housh.

Arrival

It took me 20 minutes to figure out how to start a new post. I think it was the combination of being up too early, half the website being in Chinese, and my inexperience with blogging. Anyways, I've got it all set now, so let's try and tell you all about my first day in Beijing.

The flight can best be described as, well frankly, absolutely agonizing. I'm no stranger to long flights, but long flights with a 6'6", 250 lbs. man sitting next you, taking half of your seat and ripping some of the most fowl smelling farts I've ever encountered = agonizing. I'll take one for the team and suck it up though, since I made it here in one piece.

My first impression of Beijing was of course the smog, but at the same time I couldn't believe how clean the streets and highways were. Maybe it's because of the Olympics or the Paralympics that are going on right now, but this place is virtually liter free. It's pretty amazing actually. All the roads seem to be newly paved, again I'm sure in lieu of the games but nonetheless pretty impressive.

I soon got to my place to meet my roommates, Marco for the first time, only to realize that it was Marco's birthday. I feel bad that he had to celebrate his birthday with somewhat strangers in a strange place that is new, but by he didn't seem to mind.

I came in, unpacked, got showered up and then we hit the streets for some food. There is this great place about 3 minutes walking where we ate last night and oh my was it GOOD! You know that $1 meal I was talking about last post, yeah, this is one of those places.

What seemed like a little hole in the wall restaurant turned out to be a great eat. We had quite a bit of trouble trying to order though as Drew doesn't speak any Chinese, Marco has only taken a few classes, and I haven't got in the Chinese language mind set yet. We ended up getting pork dumplings and some sort of a sweet, fried chicken. Delicious.

All in all the bill came out to about 10 kuai per person, which is roughly $1.40. Not bad for a great meal. I can see myself eating at that place and places alike quite a bit seeing how the prices are unbeatable and the food is great. The quality of food does not suffer because of the low prices and in fact might taste a little better with that authentic cooking style. A little dirt and spit never hurt anyone right? Mmmmm.

After we stuffed ourselves we came back to the apartment, relaxed, talked about some payment, rent fees, utility issues and then headed out for the night. We jumped on the subway, which is only a 5 minute walk, and took a short cab ride to this nightlife area. I forgot the name, but seeing how there are only a handful of places to go at night, I'm sure I'll have the name for you soon.

We started the night by walking around, checking out the sights. It was a beautiful place, very touristy, but beautiful. They mimicked old style Hutongs which are a series of alleys in which shops are located. Past the tourist Hutongs there was a huge lake surrounded by many, many bars, restaurants, gift shops, etc.

It was fun to roam around and see the diverse culture. I'm in China at such an exciting and changing time for these people. They just put on one of the grandest Olympics anyone has ever seen, they are dominating the world economy, and both modern and traditional advocates are living and walking the same streets.

This is what I first noticed - you have the older, lets say Gen Y, people that are very traditional and don't speak a word of English. Then you have the youth of China, Gen X, that are exploiting all this new money that China is pumping into their economy by opening up swanky lounge areas and bungalows. They dress well, roll in big groups, and don't care too much to talk to Americans.

Whatever is said and done, no matter how many of these young hipsters I meet, I cannot group all 1.6 billion citizens into specific categories. Last night we met older people that spoke good English, we're very hip, and didn't care to talk to us much. We also met younger people that we're eager to get to know us and practice their English. So you can't label definite group characteristics to each person in China, but that just goes to prove even more about the sort of cultural change China is going through right now.

Ok, enough about last night. Today should be filled with even more great adventures, which include getting a cell phone, grocery shopping, and registering at the police department. If we get some more time and the weather is nice, we might stop by Tiananmen and check that out.

Runner's Take Your Mark...

Like I said, it's going to be very hard for me to get in the habit of all this blogging business. I started off so well, initiating my blog with my acceptance into Beida, aka Peking University, but have since forgotten about my blog. Let's hope this will be the official start of my blog.

So here's a quick synopsis of what has happened since that first post oh so long ago...

Drew (the other Miami student studying at Beida) and I had secured a great apartment courtesy of the two students that went to Beida for the spring semester in early May. It was fully furnished, had a great living room with a new flat screen TV, clean bathrooms, basically everything we could have asked for. Not to mention it was on the 30 something floor in a fully "Beijing" neighborhood.

By this I mean that it wasn't a place where all the foreigners live, it was 100% Beijing, right from the landlord that didn't speak a word of English to the fact that Drew and I would most likely be the only two foreigners in the whole building. This was the best part about that place --- being fully immersed in Beijing culture and getting a real taste of living in China. But of course, it was too good to be true.

Around July, Drew and I got word from our Chinese counterpart that the landlord "didn't feel like leasing the apartment to us anymore." I think it was the combination of not wanting a 5 month lease coupled with the fact that he realized that he was charging Americans too less. Drew and I wanted the place so bad we even agreed to paying for an extra months rent just to secure the place. But no, Mr. landlord wanted to either rent out for 3 weeks during the Olympics or rent out for a full year. Neither of which fit mine and Drew's situation. Bye bye perfect apartment, hello to the major pain of apartment shopping in Beijing.

So all this took place during the heat of the summer, needless to say taking summer classes didn't allow me to devote much time to finding the 2nd best place in Beijing, since the best got away.

I do have a place now, it's in an area called Wudaoku in the Haidian district. It's about a 20 minute walk to the school or a short subway ride over (so I'm told). So it's nice and close to Beida but the area is exactly what our first place wasn't --- tourist city. Wudaoku is supposedly a very clean, friendly neighborhood but is host to hundreds of international students that are studying at one of the numerous universities around the area.

I guess I shouldn't complain after seeing what a pain it was to even get this place. And I can't even take credit for all the shopping that was done. Drew actually took the reigns on this and talked to numerous real estate agencies in Beijing until finally, through his own connections, secure this place --- mysteriously referred to as Apartment C.

Here's a look at Apartment C

As you can see, I don't know what's worse the bathroom or the kitchen. Both seem to an equally charming presence about them that just scream home. The best part about Apartment C is that my mom was very concerned about the absence of a stove in the kitchen, "how will you cook if you do not have a stove Abi??" Which my response was, "Mom, meals are $1 over there, I'm not planning on cooking even one day while I'm there." Maybe that's a little extreme, but if it really came down to it, how can you argue with a $1 dinner? Hopefully that's $1 isn't for the dog or crickets...

So this was my place up until yesterday when I get an email from Drew, who got to Beijing on Tuesday, saying that the place is absolutely disgusting. He said it was so bad that he felt dirtier after coming out of the shower then when he went in it! Thankfully he said one night was enough and the second day he was there he had found a nicer, better place in which we will spend our semester in.

No pictures of the new place yet, but will come as soon as I move in. And one last thing about this apartment business, we have another roommate that will be living with us: Marco from Texas. I believe he's a student at Texas A&M and is studying abroad for the semester as well. So we got together with him and we'll each prosper from the lower rent of a 3 bedroom apartment as opposed to a 2 bedroom apartment.

Besides all this apartment drama I've gone through, nothing else too big has happened. I leave on Sunday the 7th and will arrive in Beijing at 3 in the afternoon on the 8th. I'm still a little concerned on how I will get from the airport to my apartment seeing that I don't have a complete address, but I'll find it somehow. I'm sure that'll be the topic of discussion for my first post in Beijing.

As for now, it's time to get back to packing.

For my next post I'll write more about how I feel about leaving the place I call my home (Miami) and the people that are considered my second family.


Best.