I ate pig's kidney last night.
Turns out it was gross, but at least I tried it. LBX [Wu Xia boyfriend] likes delicacies, I call them strange meat but Wu says that its just more expensive, not weird. They were essential for my move yesterday. I have since acquired four chairs that are hands, you sit in the palm and rest on the fingers, in a rainbow [Queer power!] of colors, they spice up the apartment. Will take photos soon so I can post them on snapfish. The Wu Coalition helped me move, he has the minivan you know, and clean the new place, and were not too overbearing fortunately. My new place is awesome, although it has been a long time since I spent the first time in a new place by myself [Summer did not get her moving together until today]. My bed was excessively hard, and I left the windows open, so it was a cold hard night for me, and I found myself wide awake between the hours of 3 am and 7 am! Well at least I got a lot thinking done. About what I am not sure. Things I am working on in China. I am very busy here. I have decided [among other things] that I need to refocus all my energy into working, working hard at the job I currently have, and at furthering my job search. Git -r- done. If anyone sees any roundtuits they can send my way, I'd sure 'preciate it. My sickness seems to have finally left, it was never a full blown anything, but everyday I had a new symptom. Like my body was immunizing itself to all China sickness in one bout.
During this move I have noticed a problem that plagues china throughout: lack of standards. My bed sheet fit on my last bed, but now my new bed is just a bit too long. The landlords leaves all kind of crazy stuff in our apartment, from old soap and combs to a sewing machine table [the one where the machine hides in the table] that they refuse to take out. Very different from the US where you move in and you don’t get anything. Summer was complaining that the landlord is making us put the phone in our name, saying she did not trust us and she was worried we might be calling the US or Shandong province and not pay the bill. In the US you obviously put the phone in your name and pay whatever the hook up few is without hesitation. So it is interesting to see that all these points need to be renegotiated, there is not a standard practice for anything it seems. Having a Chinese roommate it ESSENTIAL, I don’t know how I would do all this without Summer! This Friday we are having a housewarming party, hopefully it won't get too out of hand…
I read this in the news today: “400 American civilians who call themselves "Minutemen" will guard the border between the US and Mexico. The group is composed of mostly retired men who have formed an all-volunteer civilian border patrol. For the next 30 days, they will rotate shifts around the clock to keep an eye on the Arizona-Mexico border. They're looking for illegal immigrants and smugglers who cross through a porous stretch of sun-baked desert in southeast Arizona. "I think it's a very high priority after 9/11," Inbody said. "There are hundreds of 'illegals' over that border just waiting to cross," he added.” From ABC news. Does this bother anyone else? Weren’t the 9/11 terrorists Saudis? Are Mexicans really a potential terrorist threat? Is it their ability to pick strawberries 12 hours a day for below minimum wage really threatening national security?
I went out with some friends Saturday night to a bar selected because it serves the cheapest beer in SanLiTun [$1.25 for a bottle of TsingDao] and ran into someone I briefly went to high school with here. He was a freshmen when I was a junior and we briefly hung out and played roller hockey in the parking garage of his diplomatic compound [Tai Yuan]. It was funny to see him, we briefly reminisced about high school life, and he recounted why he moved back to Beijing: he studied Chinese in college and didn’t feel too useful in the US. He feels he doesn’t know anything but Beijing. Also his family still lives here, turns out his father is a diplomat in the department of giving government grants, Fulbright’s to be exact, which my friend Alison here helped coordinate. Such a small world here in Beijing.
To close, another quote from The Dork of Cork:
"It is that greatest of mysteries: falling in love. Falling. An accurate word, suggesting as it does something that occurs independently of the will. The irresistible pull of gravity. A man falls from the roof of a building; he cannot by willing it impede his progress toward the ground. A man falls in love; he cannot check his descent.”
During this move I have noticed a problem that plagues china throughout: lack of standards. My bed sheet fit on my last bed, but now my new bed is just a bit too long. The landlords leaves all kind of crazy stuff in our apartment, from old soap and combs to a sewing machine table [the one where the machine hides in the table] that they refuse to take out. Very different from the US where you move in and you don’t get anything. Summer was complaining that the landlord is making us put the phone in our name, saying she did not trust us and she was worried we might be calling the US or Shandong province and not pay the bill. In the US you obviously put the phone in your name and pay whatever the hook up few is without hesitation. So it is interesting to see that all these points need to be renegotiated, there is not a standard practice for anything it seems. Having a Chinese roommate it ESSENTIAL, I don’t know how I would do all this without Summer! This Friday we are having a housewarming party, hopefully it won't get too out of hand…
I read this in the news today: “400 American civilians who call themselves "Minutemen" will guard the border between the US and Mexico. The group is composed of mostly retired men who have formed an all-volunteer civilian border patrol. For the next 30 days, they will rotate shifts around the clock to keep an eye on the Arizona-Mexico border. They're looking for illegal immigrants and smugglers who cross through a porous stretch of sun-baked desert in southeast Arizona. "I think it's a very high priority after 9/11," Inbody said. "There are hundreds of 'illegals' over that border just waiting to cross," he added.” From ABC news. Does this bother anyone else? Weren’t the 9/11 terrorists Saudis? Are Mexicans really a potential terrorist threat? Is it their ability to pick strawberries 12 hours a day for below minimum wage really threatening national security?
I went out with some friends Saturday night to a bar selected because it serves the cheapest beer in SanLiTun [$1.25 for a bottle of TsingDao] and ran into someone I briefly went to high school with here. He was a freshmen when I was a junior and we briefly hung out and played roller hockey in the parking garage of his diplomatic compound [Tai Yuan]. It was funny to see him, we briefly reminisced about high school life, and he recounted why he moved back to Beijing: he studied Chinese in college and didn’t feel too useful in the US. He feels he doesn’t know anything but Beijing. Also his family still lives here, turns out his father is a diplomat in the department of giving government grants, Fulbright’s to be exact, which my friend Alison here helped coordinate. Such a small world here in Beijing.
To close, another quote from The Dork of Cork:
"It is that greatest of mysteries: falling in love. Falling. An accurate word, suggesting as it does something that occurs independently of the will. The irresistible pull of gravity. A man falls from the roof of a building; he cannot by willing it impede his progress toward the ground. A man falls in love; he cannot check his descent.”
posted by Claire at 1:45 AM
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