Finally Settling In

One and a half month later, I'm finally settling in. School isn't easy, but I'm getting the hang of my classes. Recently it was the mid autumn festival and it's a big holiday here. Including the two weekends, I had 9 days off! woo! I went around Beijing and went to different areas like the Art District 798, San Li Tuan and Wang Fu Jing. 

 At San Li Tuan, it's definitely different than the rest of Beijing.  It's so foreign! There were foreign products like Casio, Coldstone Creamery, Lacoste, Adidas, Nike, and many others. All of these imported products are pricier than in the US. It is so foreign, when I was there, I felt out of place because of how I've adapted to Chinese culture. The apple store of Beijing is also there. Around Beijing, I've seen so many "authorised resellers" for apple products, it's ridiculous! San Li Tuan also had a huge five story and a basement level bargaining market. I think it was meant just for foreigners.  The sales people try to rip people off for fake products. One of my roommates and I really like going here to bargain. It's become a bit of a game for us.

Wang Fu Jing also has a mall with plenty of foreign brands.  What I most enjoy about Wang fu Jing was a little side market for food and souveniors!  This is also a bargaining market. 

These pics are from Wang Fu Jing.  They had meat on sticks. This pic is of squid, squid legs, and (i think) octopus)

corn on a stick! 

 Squirming scropians! They were a little pricy but I bought a stick for my friend and I to try.  They were squirming after they were cooked. It just tasted to salty seasoned insect shell. The thought is scarier than the taste!

Poor little starfish on a stick

This are lamb sticks. These are really popular in China.  There's also chicken sticks too.

Candied fruit on a stick.  It's basically fruit with a thick layer of sugar glaze. It's a little too sweet for me.

More food...

I'm not sure what eggs these are but there are five little eggs on each stick. Talk about your protein! 

More random food.

At Hou Hai Park in Beijing, there are people fishing with the longest fishing rods I have ever seen!

This is one of my language partners, Lei Lan! She's studying to get her Master's at Peking University.

I was waiting in line for food when a guy in front of me had a backpack on with a horrible English translation. 

This is a building at San Li Tuan. It's so fancy!

I was on campus looking for clubs to join and they had an Anime Club and boy do they get into it! I'm not sure what character he was trying to dress up as.

These next pics are of a Japanese buffet in my neighborhood called DaoLe Restaurant. So far, this has the best non chinese food. Unlimited drinks and food for 188 Yuan! Thats about 30 USD. It's a little crazy but it's worth it every once in a while.

Edamame, Sake, Beef Loin, and Sashimi Platter

Some kind of sushi roll with eel on top.

Clams, Sake, Salmon Sashimi, and edamame

PIckled cucumber, sushi roll, beef wrapped mushrooms, and really salty prawns.

SQUIIIIIIDDD! It was so good but we ordered it at the end so we only ate half of it.

That's all for now, but wait! There's more to come!

On and On and On

I've been trying to cook at home as much as possible, but a little pricy here. Depending on where I eat, it might be cheaper to eat out then to stay home and cook.

I just finished my first week with a full class load of 20 hours a week, that translates to 17 CSU units.  I'm meeting a lot of foreigners in my class.  I never realized how many people knew how to speak English; Denmark  Switzerland, Norway, Korean, Japanese, etc. people know how to speak English and they speak it fairly well!

I went to HouHai Park in Beijing! This was a map of it.  It's a park with some of it's traditional buildings still standing.  Some parts were touristy.  You could rent bikes to ride around the lakes and look at things.

This is a guy fishing.  Look at how long the pole extends! 

Theres a tiny yellow dot by the boat in the lake.  It's someone swimming in the lake.  It's really dirty in the lake. I can't imagine anyone swimming in this lake!  That's also a traditional building.  You can't even enter the building.

This is at one end of the lakes at HouHai Park.

The girl with the green backpack is one of my roommates. We were still walking along the lake on one of the bigger paths.

Milk tea on campus?! Yes please! 

Two of my roommates. The one on the left is from SF state and the one in the middle is from CSU eastbay. 

This is my other language partner! She's a first year graduate student at PKU.

I was waiting in line for my egg waffles and this guy had a cool khaki leather backpack with a message on it. It was so odd! I think it's a bad translation of a great Chinese poem.

Sunsets are different in Beijing.

Seasweed salad! so good! Beijing has different flavors which are mainly used.  There's vinegar, salty, or spicy.  This was a cool, refreshing dish.

I went to San Li Tuan District and this is the SOHO area.  It is so modern and full of foreign brands! There's Nike, Birkenstock, Coldstone's Creamery, Lacoste, etc.

Another picture of San Li Tuan and a few of my new friends from Cornell!

Along the stairway, there was an interesting water staircase with pebbles. I found it interesting.

A few of my friends from Cornell!

Two roommates and I getting our dinner on! 

My roommate tried to squeeze my eyeball.

I was at Master Kong's Restaurant.  The side dish is a refreshing cucumber salad.  It has become on e of my favorites in Beijing.  There's also a lack of veggies and meat served when ordering any dish here.  The noodles was a spicy pork noodle.

A quick photo of a mini night market by the mall.

I drew my classmate in the Chinese book.  He's a monk from Thailand! His name is Pai.

In an alleyway by my home, there was a movie being shot!  

This is a night shot from my friend's apartment.  He lives on the 27th floor.

My friend Tony Mac is a photographer and he helped out with an advertisement with the HTC phone a while ago. Guess what? his face is still in China! haha

A lady had her goose tied by the leg.  She was just walking it around! 

I joined a few clubs this past week! I joined a guitar association, drum club, volleyball club, and calligraphy club.  This was calligraphy club! These guys were a little shy with taking this photo with.... since i just met them!

There have been many things whirling around in my life, especially new Chinese, words, phrases, and grammar. It just goes on and on and on. My goal for the year's end is to speak as if I'm a native! 

The End of the First Week of School

 The first week of class is coming to an end and I'm just about to apply for the second half of my classes. So far, my classes aren't too difficult. My body is finally adjusting to my new surroundings. I had the runs for a while and  I was extremely glad my doctor prescribed me medicine for just in case. (: I'm about to start out on another week of school with my elective classes! The CSU coordinator planned a trip for the National Day Holiday (we get 9 days off) so I'm excited for that! 

Some more pictures for you all to see!

Xia Bu Xia Bu Hot Pot. You're not supposed to take a picture but I snagged one! (: There are Xia Bu's everywhere here! Normally with others I end up eating about $7 USD.

A couple of my Chinese Books for class.

I realized there are basically two flavors in China, spicy or salty.  These dishes were definitely salty!

Studying at an expensive cafe! I had a royal milk tea! It was so interesting.  It had a hint of zest in the milk tea with honey on the side.  The honey definitely made the milk tea taste good.

The sun was just setting in my neighborhood.

This is a statue right by one of the buildings for my class.  Notice the people doing taichi in the background.  They are there very often. Sometimes people practicing martial arts will also practice here.

The sun was setting and I thought this looked beautiful.  This is just by 4th Ring Road by Bei Da

Also, another pretty picture as the sun sets. 

This is the building of where I live. It's one of the more modern buildings

The lobby of my building! The chandelier is huge!

There's a theatre at my school and this huge picture was up.  I tried to copy the man on the lower left.

This is Bei Da's library!! You have to have a 500 RMB deposit to receive a library card!

I'm standing on "Stone Boat" with one of the towers on campus.

This is one of my language partners! 

Wooooo! This was spicy! One of my roommates and I ate at a Si Chuan place and boy was it spicy! These spices numb your tongue.

A picture with me at the Si Chuan place.  The red little lumps are big spicy peppers!

On one of the nights, we went to a kabob place! It was super filling.   We also had a refreshing salad on the side.  This was a meaty meal.  Normally, when ordering a dish and "meat" is in it, you're only offered bits of it.  It gets a little scarce.

I'm doing fine in Beijing and I'm excited for what's to come ahead!