adventures aren’t always fun

one of the Russian fighters in action

I think it is time I start asking more questions before I agree to things like weekends away.  There was a good streak of getting lucky, having a good time even though I didn’t know what I was getting into, but that officially ended this weekend.  So here is the recap of the last four days…

Like I mentioned in the last post, we were taking a train to some unknown city.  We each shelled out 300RMB (about 50 bucks) for this luxury rather than a free bus trip because we were told it would be better.  We were also told the bus trip was about seven hours, so we figured, eh, maybe four by bus?  Yeah… try twelve hours!  I had a bed, so it was not all that bad for me but not all of my travel companions were as lucky. 

When we arrive in a town called Taigu there is a car there to pick us up and take us to the hotel.  Immediately upon arriving we are all whisked into the VIP room where there is a scale waiting.  One by one they ask for passport numbers and say to get on the scale to be weighed.  Trying to stay optimistic, we told ourselves this was just some weird hotel policy in China.  Until they stopped the procedure before they got to me.  This was boys only apparently.  At that point we couldn’t help but think there had been some confusion and they thought my two classmates were going to be fighting in this tournament.  Slowly we were putting the pieces together, yet we still tried to convince ourselves we were just there to watch a martial arts tournament, the performance kind, where people are showing their forms, not punching and kicking each other.  “Maybe it is both?” we thought.

After the weigh in the boys were showed to their rooms but I was left standing alone in the lobby.  Eventually someone came over, I got checked in and brought to a room.  Instead of using the key, they knocked, and this little Chinese girl half my age answered.  Great, I have a roommate.  I had a moment of wishing I was one of the boys, but oh how quickly that tune changed.  Luckily the girl spoke pretty good English and I followed her downstairs to breakfast when she instructed me to do so.  From there I found my commrades and joined them at the table just in time to see some other white guy get brought over to translate.  Long story short, they had to fight in the tournament.  A little background info on these guys… one is from Italy, has studied WuShu for ten years, but had no experience in a ring.  The other is from Seattle, has only studied martial arts for the 2.5 weeks he’s been in China, and in that time has been studying TaiChi, and never had any deisre to use martial arts to fight, ever.  Every excuse he had in him they shot down.  I have never boxed… We’ll teach you.  I didn’t bring any contacts… We’ll go get you some (they never did).  I don’t want to fight… You have to.  I know a lot of you are probably saying “He didn’t have to do anything,” but don’t forget, we are in China.  They said it would screw up everything if he didn’t fight, everything had already been planned, blah blah blah.  It wasn’t until they told the more inexperienced of the two that they would tell his opponent to go easy on him that he agreed, though still unwillingly.

I’m gonna skip all the “training” part and go straight into the fights, which were that night by the way.  We arrived at the gym and pushed our way through crowds of people and then a line of police before making it inside.  Oh man, what a production this was going to be!  Lighting, pyrotechnics, smoke machines, opening acts, jumbo tron, and TV cameras.  Yep, this thing was televised.  Earlier the fighters had been shown how they were supposed to enter, do a little routine when they were announced, etc.  So the fighting starts and I realize this is meant to be a foreigners versus China competion.  (The fighting style is called Sanda, FYI.)  Here is a little BG info on the foreign fighters:

America – My classmate already mentioned, no expereince whatsoever.

Italy – My other classmate already mentioned, martial arts expereince but no fighting expereince.

Russia (short) – Travel companion, couple years martial arts experience but not in the last few years. (pictured above)

Russia (tall) – Actually knew how to box, but don’t think he actively trains.

America/Columbia – Trained since he was a kid, but had never participated in anything like this.

(They also didn’t have enough foreigners so two Chinese guys fought on the foreign team.)

So the above and then two Thai fighters (who actually knew what they were doing) went up against Chinese guys who go to sports schools and train every day.  Ummmm, what?  You have to ask how is this fun for anybody.  The fighters, the non-fighter fighters, the spectators?  Obviously the only match ups that are going to be close is the Thai guys, who study Muay Thai.  Curious thing is that for some reason in this tournament they make knees illegal, even though it usually is legal in Sanda.  For those of you who don’t know what I am getting at, Muay Thai is all about the knees.  Despite this new interesting rule, both Thai guys won the first round (which took place over two nights).  All the other foreigners lost.  My buddy from Seattle got “knocked out” within fifteen seconds, carried out of the ring on a stretcher, and is quite proud of the black eye he received.

So now it is Sunday, the first round is over and we’re going back to Beijing and can all eventually laugh about the experience.  Not so fast.  Apparently we are not going home.  I’m not sure what happened, whether it was mis-communication or people not giving a damn about what we wanted or what.  I guess when earlier we said “we want to go home Sunday, we have classes” they thought they would do us a favor and get us out of class.  So the Chinese Government called our school and told them we wouldn’t be attending classes on Monday.  Now we are incredibly pissed off, and we are helpless to do anything about it.

Not only was there the issues with the involuntarily competing, not being able to go leave when expected, we were also incredibly bored.  The event was about three hours each night and other than that we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the hotel and that was all we did.  The rest of the time I sat in my room watching Chinese television and getting stir crazy.  After breakfast the American/Columbian came to talk to us and calm us down a bit and after hearing complaints about boredom suggested we go out for massages, which we did.  Won’t go into details of that now, because this is a crazy long post already.

The finals were that night and after the last fight everyone got in the ring and took pictures and I have to admit that was kinda fun.  Then back to the hotel for, thankfully, what was going to be our last night in Taigu.  Throughout the course of the weekend we had added even more pieces to the puzzle and figured out that not only did nobody else pay for any of their transportation, as the government was taking care of those costs, all the other fighters got paid to fight!  So we asked the American/Columbian to translate for us and ask our Chinese guide if they guy we gave out money to back in Beijing had given in to him for the train tickets.  Surprise surprise, he had not.  So this is my first expereince of getting taken in China.  Will we get our 300RMB back?  Will they get their 1000RMB each for fighting?  How it all pans out is TBD, because we are not sure if this guy fled with our money or is really dumb and thinks we wouldn’t figure it out. 

So finally, Monday, we are on our way back to Beijing.  Our guide is not going with us, the Russians (who both spoke decent English) had left Sunday morning, and the American/Columbian had flown out earlier.  So we had no translator, but we didn’t really care because we were leaving.  Luckily a few of the Chinese fighters we were traveling with spoke a little bit of English afterall because there was much that needed to be communicated along the way.  We knew it was going to be a bus ride back, which is in fact much much shorter than the train ride interestingly enough (if planned out properly, which of course it wasn’t).  So we leave the hotel around 9am on a private bus that had a DVD player and we felt like we were livin’ large on our way back.  Turns out that bus took us a few hours away to a bus station, where we had to wait three hours to catch a bus there (for a while we weren’t sure we were going to be able to get tickets at all and would have to go back to the hotel) and that bus was another few hours then dropped us off in some unknown city where we took another bus to a train station.  It is now 7:30pm and we have tickets for a train that leaves at 9:30.  So a couple hours wait, a two hour train ride, and we are back in Beijing!  We had a car waiting for us there and managed to explain where we lived and within thrity minutes I was back in my apartment, a moment I wasn’t sure was ever going to come.

So I’m back, I’m not harmed, and I have never been happier to be a girl.  I can’t help but wonder what I would have done had there been a female competition as well.  At first I definitely would have said no way, but since I have more experience than the guy from Seattle, I couldn’t very well have said no after he agreed.  Eh, they gave them cool little glass trophies at the end.  That would be one hell of a conversation piece!

another weekend away

our martial arts instructor practicing in the facility where we train

In a few hours I will be departing for yet another weekend excursion.  (It is currently about 2pm on Thursday here.) This time it is only us three martial arts students and one teacher.  We just briefly met this teacher, and by met I mean he was in the same room as us, so I have no idea how much English he speaks, if any.  And to be honest, I don’t actually know where we are going either.  I do know why we are going though, to be spectators at a martial arts tournament.  Well, at least I think I know that.  The three of us are under that impression anyway. 

Why is everything so unclear you ask? 

Well, there is this Chinese guy who is studying English at the same facility we are studying Chinese, and he kinda works for them too.  Since (I think) he studies martial arts, he serves as our translator, stopping in every now and again to make sure we’re okay.  The thing is, his English isn’t all that great.  He planned this trip which is why none us really know for sure what is going on.  But we have the support and comfort of each other, so we decided to go anyway.  Supposedly food and lodging is all paid for, we just had to pay for our train tickets.  So yeah… we’re taking a train, but I don’t know how long of a ride because I don’t know what city we are destined for.  Eh, just another adventure.  Adventures are fun, right?

We return sometime on Sunday, so there will most likely be a few days without posts, or emails, etc.

China firsts

Since the internet is working really well right now, and because today marks two weeks in China, I am going to write one more post before heading back to my apartment.  Here is a list, with pictures, of China firsts:

My first purchase.  I desperately needed TP!  Everything you see here cost about $7 USD total.

My first trip to McDonalds.  This is at the train station before we departed to Inner Mongolia.  I bought a chicken sandwhich value meal and it tasted just the same as it did in the USA.

My first hot pot experience.  The best meal in China thus far!

My first beer.  Tasted pretty good, but nothing special.  It is no Blue Moon, but better than a Heiniken in my humble opinion.

My first dumpling.  Seeing how I was really looking forward to this, I am slightly disappointed.  While not bad, they did kinda give me that undercooked sick feeling.  And according to the rest of the table, these were pretty good ones.  (And yes, I tried that sea cucumer as well.)

My first bus ride.  Completely crammed but surprisingly well organized.  And cheap!  Fifteen cents (1 RMB) and that is the expensive fare since I didn’t have a frequent rider pass.  If I did it would have only been six cents (.4 RMB)!

art district 798

a random door in the district

As you can probably tell by now, it doesn’t take much for me to agree to go on WLE group excursions.  I figure they already have it organized, and it is free transportation, so might as well.  Last week I saw a posting on the bulletin board about some old abandoned area that the artistic types had moved in on and created their own.  I just had to ask one question, “Can I take pictures?”  The answer was yes so I said, “Sign me up!”

Like always, I didn’t know what to expect, but it was free and that is what mattered.  After two hours of rounding everybody up at the various shuttle stops we arrived at Art District 798.  I am going to skip over the detailed history, but will leave you with this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/798_Art_Zone) if you are interested.  At the last stop a “tour guide” had jumped onboard to tell us a bit about where we were going.  He was an older gentleman and a lot of fun, claiming he had no appreciation for the wacky art there, but that maybe we would like it.  I’m also not a fan of modern art, but it does usually make for some good pictures.  Anyway, our “guide” didn’t go beyond the shuttle ride and when we got there we were told we had two hours to explore, so explore we did.

I was happy to find that a lot of the art was “real” art and not the “modern” type at all.  Granted, there are some weird things like a huge stack of three red dinosaurs in cages, or a painted pink bottomless girl on a painted pink bicycle.  But there are also a lot of rooms that are just like I was in a normal museum.  Or art gallery since many pieces were for sale.  Amidst the studios and galleries there are also alot of souveneir shops and restaurants.  All the restaurants were serving American food, so this place is definitley tourist driven.  Earlier we had been told that many local Chinese people don’t even know about it, but many foreigners do.  It is beginning to get more popular among the younger local hipster generation however.

This area is quite big and a bit of a maze, so I’m not entirely sure how much of it we actually covered.  I do think it is worth going back again on my own eventually though.  Or if anyone wants to come visit me in Beijing, we can make a day of it! 

martial arts performance

Hanging out after class on Friday, a fellow student found a stack of tickets promoting a martial arts performance that night.  Two words were said, “free” and “downstairs”, and I was in.  Not knowing what to expect, we headed downstairs and looked for the performance hall.  As we walked in one of the girls commented how she thought the “monks” may start taking their clothes off because the place had that sort of vibe.  We all anxiously looked around for some youth and all relaxed when we saw a little girl seated near the front.  Us westerners, under the impression nothing is really free and unable to speak Chinese, were not sure when the server came out if he was telling us we had to buy something to drink or simply asking us if we wanted something to drink.  To avoid any sort of confrontation we all agreed to order a beer each.  Considering it was 58 RMB for one beer, equal to about $8.50, we all stuck with just the one throughout the whole two hour show.

The opening act was just a girl singing, and she did so for way too long.  But once the martial artistst came out and the real entertainment started, we were all intently focused.  The things these guys can do with their bodies is unbelievable.  I am sure all these stunts are things you have all seen before, as they are always the same… lying on blades and/or spikes, having stone layed on your stomach and then crushed with a hammer, being held up by spears, bending spears with your throat, having people smash staffs across your arms and chest, etc.  But just because you have seen them before does not make them any less amazing.  I have seen a performance like this before, in Seattle when I was in high school I think, and that one was better if memory serves me.  However, the fact that I am currently trying to learn the things these guys were doing made me have so much respect for them and their ability.  Even the easiest techniques they were doing really are not that easy at all, trust me.

So even if I did watch 75% of the show through the LCD screen on my camera, it was still a lot of fun.  I enjoyed the fact that we could understand what was going on just as well as the Chinese locals seated around us because none of the actors spoke.  There was laughing and grunting, and everything else was conveyed with body language.  What it really did is make me even more excited for our weekend trip to the Shaolin Temple!  I don’t know when it will be yet, but after we go I am pretty sure there is no way I would ever be able to regret this trip.  Haha, hope I’m not hyping it up too much in my head!

Inner Mongolia

Did you know that Inner Mongolia is not actually a part of Mongolia?  Maybe you did, but I sure didn’t.  The weekend excursion to Inner Mongolia is something I knew about before I came to Beijing with WLE, and something I was definitely looking forward to.  So when on my first full day in this city the staff asked me if I wanted to go that weekend, that it would be the last time of the year it was offered due to the upcoming cold weather, I went ahead and signed up.  It wasn’t until after I did so that I started to worry… “Wait, my visa only allows one entry into China, are they going to let me back in?”  It was then I learned that Inner Mongolia is actually part of China.  At least it is bordering Mongolia, but seriously, it would make more sense to call it “Outer China” than it would Inner Mongolia.  Oh well.  (If I didn’t do a good job explaining the geography, feel free to look at a map.)

Now confident that I wouldn’t be stranded outside China, since I was never actually to leave China, I set off with six other students.  The train ride was ten hours, but luckily it was overnight and I had no trouble sleeping.  When we arrived there was our tour guide, Rock, waiting for us.  From there we drove two hours away from the city and ended up in the middle of nowhere.  Stepping out of the van in the morning, it actually was a bit chilly, but that was as cold as I got the whole trip.  Being a total cold sissy, I had prepared myself with layers and layers of clothes, but didn’t use most of them, not even when sleeping!  Speaking of sleeping, our accomodations were yurts, but not traditional ones you would picture if you ever watch Travel Channel or Discovery Channel.  Nope, this place was tourist friendly with beds and a western toilet and everything.  While it would have been cool had we “roughed it” a bit more, I have to admit this was a nice surprise.

All of our meals were prepared for us in the dining room.  For one dinner we special-ordered two roasted lamb legs because Rock had made our mouth water telling stories about them on the ride up.  Apparently they had slaughtered the thing shortly after we requested it, but we were not invited to watch.  They said we would not want to eat it if we had, and there is a good chance they were right, despite our claiming otherwise.  Earlier in the day we, for some reason nobody can remember, chose to partake in the LONGEST horse riding option.  It was three hours.  Only one of the group was an experienced rider, and even he was finding the saddles and terrain difficult.  For me, all was fine if we could have walked the whole time, but our guides found our suffering funny and I have never been on a horse that was running so fast!  A few who had never been on a horse before swear they never will again.  When we returned we got to watch a horse race and some Mongolian Wrestling.  That night as we gnawed on delicious lamb, the staff entertained us with song and dance.

The next day we headed to the desert to experience more of what Inner Mongolia had to offer.  One thing they did have was camel rides.  With everybody still aching from the horses, it took a lot of persuasion on my part to get everyone to do it.  I figured, probably never going to have this opportunity again, so gotta take advantage when I can.  It wasn’t until someone reassured us that the camels would only be walking, not running, that everyone agreed.  And everybody was so happy they did!  It was a nice leisurely walk through the sand dunes, and we were all left with a good, painless story to tell.

Our accomodations, otherwise known as deluxe yurts.

The poor thing sure looks tasty, huh?

Pretty sunrise, also to show the nothingness that surrounded us.

Proof that I did what I said I did!

my pimpin’ apartment

Let me just say, I am SO happy I shelled over the extra bucks to live in an apartment rather than in a dorm-like setting.  Even though I signed up for having a roommate, there are currently no roommates to be had so I have a two bedroom place all to myself.  At first I was bummed about this because I was looking forward to having someone I could have an instant bond with, explore the city with, and maybe study with.  After almost two weeks here though, I have to admit I do like having the place to myself.  There is no sharing bathroom time, and I don’t have to pick up after myself right away (though I am relatively clean anyway).

Those who chose the campus living are less than thrilled with their accomodations.  They have the “shower” which is really just a shower head in the corner of their bathroom.  For those of you who haven’t expereinced this, it really is a pain because it soaks your whole bathroom.  Since they are on the first floor they say sometimes it can smell like sewage, they have no minifridge or anything, and one of them is kinda tall so his feet hang off the foot of the bed.

My only complaint is that my washing machine floods my bathroom, but that is supposed to get fixed soon.  And no, I don’t think it is because I am using it wrong.  Everything is fine until it drains, which it does through a hose into a hole in the floor.  For some reason after it drains, the water comes right back up out of the hole.  This makes me think it is a clog or something, but I am not about to go try and fix it myself and risk making it worse.  Besides, I don’t want to go through the trial and error of finding out if my DIY techniques worked.  Silly me, I tried using it a second time after the first flood, thinking maybe it was just a fluke, but it wasn’t.  So basically I am tired of scooping water with a bucket (yes it was deep enough that I could scoop with a bucket).  If somebody else is in charge of fixing it, and they test it, and it floods, it is their responsibility to clean it up.  That is how I see it anyway.

Away from the negative and on to the positive.  I have plenty of space, my shower is fantastic, the AC works great, and my bed is big (even if it isn’t winning any prizes in comfort).  I am on the 19th floor of what I think is a 20 floor building.  All the apartment buildings in the area must be one big complex because they all look exactly the same.  And you know what else is in the area?  The second largest mall in the world!  Yep, can’t really complain about that.  That is where the Starbucks is, that is also where my language classes are so I am here quite a bit.  I haven’t explored it much yet except for the supermarket, which is really more like a Wal-Mart and has everything… except notecards.  Apparently China has no need for notecards, but that is another story.

OK, that is enough talk.  It is time for pictures.

Entrance hall in my apartment with hip colorful lights

Spacious living area

Cheerful orange kitchen

Where I spend the sleeping hours

See the hole on the right side?  That is where the water pumps out of.  I don’t think it is supposed to do that!

back in action!

photo I took of my friend Dan and his vice on a trip to NYC Feb ‘08

Wow, I was beginning to think this was not ever going to work, but it is!  I am officially blogging from Beijing.  Not just that, a Starbucks in Beijing.  Good ol’ Starbucks WiFi.  So now that I have been here for, what, a week and a half now, there is plenty to write about.  But if I were to get you all up to speed that would be one lengthy post!  So instead, I am just going to make this a quickie.  I want to thank everyone who has been patient and continually checking my site despite there not being anything new in quite awhile.  Turns out I am not going to be able to blog from my apartment, but I can anywhere that has a wireless connection.  What this means is that there probably won’t be a new post daily, but I will do it as often as I can.  Looks like Beijing is finally gonna make a Starbucks-lover out of me.  Growing up in Seattle didn’t do it, I caved a little in LA but still just went for the non-coffee drinks and rarely at that, now who knows what will become of me.

So the update is that everything is going well.  I am already at the tail end of my first stomach bug, everybody I’ve encountered is super nice, and my apartment is pretty sweet.  I will post pictures of it soon for those who haven’t seen them already.

today is the day

Three hours from now I will be on a plane headed for China.  Ok, actually one headed to SanFran first and then China.  I have no idea how long it will take until I have internet access, but I will blog again as soon as I am able.  And if you never see another post, well that probably means I couldn’t get around that silly firewall of theirs.  Hopefully that isn’t the case and you’ll be hearing from me soon!

goodbye big ben

Got a shocking phone call today that one of my high school friends, Ben Kurtz, passed away early Friday morning in his sleep.  Completely unexpected, was in perfect health as far as anybody knew.  Even though he was living in Bend, Oregon he was just up here visiting and I was supposed to hang out with him the Thursday before last.  We decided on a rain check because we were all pretty tired.  And now he’s gone.  Gone at age 25.  First autopsy report says he had an enlarged heart and that is the only abnormal thing they could find.  His father died of a heart attack at age 37, so it is possible that heart problems were genetic.  But there had been no warning signs.

He had a good life though, traveled a lot and was lucky enough to turn a passion for photography into a career.  You can see some of his work at http://photodecorate.com/index.html.  Rest in peace Ben, you were loved and will be missed.