Another Blog
Hey everyone,
This is my last night here in Beijing. It’s been an interesting week for me, and just about everyone else. It’s also been the busiest. There was a lot of sight seeing and it has completely burnt me out. We don’t have anything planned in the morning, so I will get to sleep in.
It’s going to be hard to narrow down what’s important and memorable and what’s not. Everything that I did will be engraved in my brain for quite sometime. The ones that come to the top of my head though:
* Saturday night, a few of us decided to go out and hang. We were originally going to go to this dance club Banana, but when we discovered how far away it was, we decided to stay closer within the area. We came across this hotel that had a hip hop dance club in the lower level. Needless to say, it went down. We met up with a group of people. They kept buying us whiskey and coke, which I couldn’t turn down for various reasons. You can only take light beer for so long that it starts to get annoying. I ended up befriending these three french women ( all seem to be around my age, which was nice ). Is it just me, or does America have the most conceited/effed up girls out there? These girls from France were incredibly friendly and very easy going to talk to. It was nice. I asked for a number I could call them at incase I wanted to hang out again, and they gave me a number.
* The group and I were going to the memorial of Mao, but while in the process of going, I ended up losing my group. My chinese is still shaky, so I had no idea what I was going to do. I ended up making it back to the hotel and decided to take a nap for three or four hours. Apparently I didn’t miss much. On my way back to the hotel, I started talking to a chinese man who could speak english. At one point he asked me ‘How do you feel about China only having one party - a communist party’ and, being the honest guy that I am:
‘Well, I don’t know how you feel about it, but to me I think it would kind of suck to not have a choice of party, especially if I had disagreements with a party that I would be obligated to support because it is the only one. It seems unfair and doesn’t leave you with a lot of options.’
His response:
‘I like your answer.’
* Tuesday night, I went to the Banana club to meet up with the french girls. After going to the Banana club, I am going to find it hard going to any dance club in Oklahoma again ( not that I go to them to begin with ). This place was nice. It felt like something you would probably come across in LA or New York. French girls said they would be in Shanghai possibly, which I am going to tomorrow evening. I gotta admit, it’s going to be really hard to leave, especially after making some new friends.
Probably the most memorable moment was Saturday when I climbed the Great Wall. It was probably the greatest high I have ever felt in my life. At the same time, it was quite a work out! The chinese love their steps here. There is no denying it. Loads and loads of stairs. There is something floating around that a certain someone did acid their first time here at the Great Wall. After climbing, I find it hard to believe. HA.
Some other sights I came across: Beijing Zoo, Ming Tomb, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Wang Fu Jing Shopping Street, Pearl Market, Summer Palace.
Tomorrow, we plan on visiting the main stadiums of the 2008 Olympic Games. Yes, that includes the Bird’s Nest. I’m way excited for that.
Well, I need to get off. I will update you guys in a few days, hopefully.
Sincerely,
Tim
