Alright, it's finally clicking. At long last I have an experience worth commenting on. Well, going to a Chinese grocery store was pretty interesting, but this is really good. For the past few days I've done a great deal of worrying and not much else. Sure, I've met some people, but the conversation inevitably turns to our fear of the language pledge. This pledge, which I will sign tomorrow morning, says that I will speak no language but Chinese, and gives me only 4 chances to break that pledge before I am kicked out of the program. In addition, I cannot listen to English music, nor watch English speaking movie or television. Needless to say, I needed a way to relax. Thankfully, today myself and several others, were escorted by two Chinese roommates to Huo Hai, a lake that has been around since the Ming Dynasty. Point is, it's really old. Since that time, people have been using the lake to hua bing (ice skate). One of the more interesting activities that's developed is the use of hua bing che, which means ice skating car, and are basically metal frames with two seats. Renting one also includes a pair of metal rods to push oneself along the ice. The rods are actually two screw drivers welded to a piece of metal. Crude, but highly affected. the result is absolutely awesome. For the first time, I forgot about the language pledge I had tomorrow, and the mountains of homework I would soon face. I just skated along, completely enjoying myself. This is why I came to China.
A quick side note, when I mentioned to our Chinese roommates that this would never fly in America because we don't trust our children with sharpened screw drivers, he replied " But you have so many guns?" So true, my friend, so true. The good times on Huo Hai were followed by a cold walk, as we headed to our next stop, Gulou. On the way, I spotted this beauty, an Mercedes Benz SLS AMG. She stickers for about $200,000, and that's before the 17% Chinese luxury tax. Having seen the way some people drive here, I would probably keep it in the garage.
Gulou, as mentioned above, is a major tourist attraction in Beijing. Originally built as a watch tower, it was later used to announce the time. I know this because Wikipedia tells me so.
The actual time keeping was accomplished using the giant drums you see pictured below. And they are indeed giant, some as large as 6 or 7 feet. It was fascinating to see the only surviving original drum, now a massive carcass of its former glory. To get to all this wonderful history, you have to climb the steepest stairs I've ever seen. Several older people were coming down as we went up, and it looked like they were clinging on for dear life. Better avoid this if you're over thirty, it's that bad. I would describe my own descent as a controlled fall.
Having scared several years of my life expectancy on the way down, we were faced with the prospect of finding somewhere to eat. This is where our Chinese friend, Meiyi, really shined. After trying out a place that was about the size of a broom closet, we settled on a much larger, but still small, restaurant about a block from the tower. There, we enjoyed a wonderful meal of things I can neither pronounce nor identify. It was quite delicious, and it represented exactly what I wanted to do while I was in China, eat.
So today was a success. Despite my nervousness at the language pledge, I was able to have a seriously great. Hopefully, I'll have many more. Oh, and I'll learn a little Chinese along the way.
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