Beijing oh Beijing

I hate to say it, but the longer I'm in Beijing the less I like it. I like it most of the time, but there are certain days when I just can't take it. I'm not sure if this is a don't like all of China thing, or just don't like Beijing. I'll have to wait and see when I visit Shanghai. But it's different living somewhere and going there for the weekend, you know?

Something that goes along the lines of getting really frustrated with this city is getting frustrated with Beida. Now again, I'm not sure if this can apply to all schools in China or just mine, but it seems that they are terribly unorginized and incapable of fixing a simple situation.

For example, on the course sign up sheet they had listed a course titled "International Financial Mangagment" which I planned to take. I go to the first class only to find out that the class doesn't start for another 2 weeks. Ok, they made a simple mistake on the course sheet, no worries. Go back 2 weeks later and there is still no class. I go to the business school office only to find out that the whole course is now cancelled.

This was the week I got up at 6am to take a flight back from Sichuan province in order to make it home in time for this class. A simple email saying, "the course you have signed up for is now cancelled due to xyz. Sorry for the inconvience." But no, I was just supposed to magically sense that the class was cancelled.

This put me in the bad position of being one class short and already being in the fourth week of the semester. I had to sign up for another class and catch up on 3 missed classes worth of material. But for some reason it wasn't bad at all to make that up...

On another point about the school, it is suprisingly easy. Beida is consistantly either the #1 or #2 school in China, year after year, yet it seems to be easy. Is this just because of the classes I'm taking? Who knows.

I got back a group paper which I thought was a pretty sub par paper, for my Operations Mangagment class today, and got a 96% -- highest grade in the class. My group didn't work that hard and wasn't really close to any of the right answers that the teacher had gone over after we turned in the assignment. In the comments she wrote that our paper was very well written and we had good use of language. This may be because Drew and I did most of the paper seeing how our European groupmates weren't confident in their grammar skills.

It's just interesting to me because I work really hard at Miami to get good grades, but over here is seems like I haven't really had to even open a book yet. I mean I'm not really complaining, but I am at the same time. I wish I was learning over here, because this is my one time to learn about China in China.

I guess this just allows me to not have to worry about schoolwork on the weekends which will allow me to travel more. I'm sure next month I'll have more stories of how annoying this city and my school can be at times. Everybody needs to vent sometimes.


At least I'm going to the Great Wall tomorrow. I'm going to the most challenging/dangerous part of the wall called Simatai. I'm going with 4 Germans in my program, should be an interesting day.


TIC.

National Day Holiday Trip

I've been back from my week long trip for a few days now and haven't really been motivated to write down my feelings about it. I had a great time on the trip and it was everything I expected, its just that I've actually been busy around the house and in Beijing the last few days and haven't had time to write about my trip.

First I was off to Chongqing. I had heard about Chongqing from two friends from Miami that have been there for a few months and are studying there for the next year, but never really knew what all the hype was about. Now I do. Chongqing maybe the fastest growing city in China right now and after seeing the hundreds and hundreds of cranes, I believe it. As my friend Andrew put it, China's new national bird is now the crane.

After a few days in Chongqing, I headed to Chengdu. Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the earthquake damage sites but in a way I'm glad I didn't. Chengdu was filled with culture streets and pandas. The pandas were cute, but not all that exciting. Just sat around and ate, or just sat.

Next was Leshan. This is where it starts to get interesting. At this point I've left my friends from Miami behind in Chengdu and it's just me and my roommates. I like to think that I planned this part of the trip because I figured out all the logistics for the rest of the trip, and to my surprise there was not one glitch.

Leshan was a smaller city, parts of which reminded me of Udupi. It had that small town feel, but actually had a few tall buildings. The main attraction in Leshan was Dafo, or Giant Buddha. It was something that I really wanted to see while in China as I've seen it on TV multiple times (thanks Zimmerman --- not). It was a breathtaking sight to see how big the Buddha actually was in person.

After only a few hours in Leshan we hopped on another bus to Emeishan. Emeishan or in English, Mt. Emei, is one of four sacred Buddhist mountains in China. We we're checked into our hotel in Emeishan when we decided to go check out a local monastery called Baoguo Si. Walking around Baoguo Si I was really amazed at the planning put into this specific monastery.

While in awe I was approached by a Chinese man named Patrick. Patrick told us that he was a tour guide in the Sichuan region and was basically a VIP at the monastery. He told us that we could stay at the monastery if we wanted that in one of the guest rooms for only 30 RMB ($4.40). We had already paid our hotel for the night, but called them up and told them that we were going back to Chengdu that night and got out of the hotel. We ran back to the hotel, picked up our stuff and stayed at the monastery that night.

Staying at the monastery wasn't life changing or anything, but it was definitely a cool experience. We got to eat dinner that night and breakfast at 6:30 in the morning with the monks. It was really peaceful in the morning, feeling like it was just us and the monks.

So we had a full day of climbing, around 9 miles total. In fact, we only had time to climb up half way because to climb to the top you need a full 12 hours. We had to catch a bus back to Chengdu that evening, so could only do half. Nevertheless it was a fun hike. Went to monkey mountain (check out the video of that monkey intimidating me!) which was a lot of fun, at some a great lunch on the side of the mountain, and just had a good time hiking the mountain and breathing the fresh air that seems to be in short supply in the bigger cities.

I went back to Chengdu that night and back to Beijing the following morning. All-in-all a great trip to Sichuan province. Oh, and forgot to give you the scoop on the food. Excellent! The hot pot was particularly good (boiling meats and vegetables in a vat of oil, water, and spices). We got the lowest amount of spice in our vat that night and it was still hotter than anything I've had. I can't even imagine the spicy stuff!

Back to Beijing, back to school. The schoolwork is starting to pick up although I really don't see it getting overwhelming anytime this semester. This school may have a great reputation as the best school in China, but there are many things that make it seem like it's not. More about this during a later post though.

Now that I've made it to Sichuan, just have to go to a few other cities before I go home. Speaking of home, I'm coming home early, although the exact date is TBD. I've found out that my exams will end by Christmas, so maybe come home then, maybe go to Hong Kong, maybe go to India? Not quite sure yet, but I will be home for New Years.

Gan Bei.