Not Quite Home

Back from the trip. =) Not in the mood to write yet (and it seems like this will continue for quite a while =P) so just a few of my favourite photos here for now.

The blue sky of Seattle.

The "aquarium" at the MS Museum.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

That's us. =)

The central library at University of Washington.

1905 UW entrance exam.

And the sunset on the way home (but not quite home for me yet).

Weekend Excursions

Uploaded all photos up to yesterday's adventures. But time spent on these trips == less time for blogging, so here are some teasers, and please go to the link for all the photos -- un-selected and un-captioned. =P

First week

Second week

Visited the Tian'an Men (天安门) Square last week. We actually wanted to go to the Forbidden City (故宫) first, but we sort of lost our way around the Square =D so we thought might as well finish touring the Square first. Then our cameras ran out of battery and mine ran out of storage space on top of that.. so we decided to leave the Forbidden City till next time.



Before going up to the main building, we found a garden at the side. It turned out to be the Sun Yat-Sen Park (中山公园). I'm glad we made the detour, because the park was full of very interesting trees, and I should say I enjoyed this part more than the actual Tian'an Men. =P




Third week

Great Wall! =) Angie happened to be in town, so we went together.. or more exactly, I hopped into their rented car. =D We took the easier path, Badaling Great Wall (八达岭长城) where we took the cable car up to Haohan Po (好汉坡), hiked for a bit, played Spiderman as Ben put it.. then took the cable car back down.



In the afternoon we continued our journey to (a small part of) Summer Palace (颐和园). The place is huge!

Explanation courtesy of Peter: the number of animals carved at the end of the roof signifies the rank of the resident in the imperial household. Interesting!

After the sightseeing business, we met up with Rong Hui and Wei Lie, BF members who are studying in Beijing University.



The university itself is almost a tourist attraction, it has such wonderful sceneries and you can find souvenir sellers at the side of the road. Here is the library, one of the three major places as I was told. The other two are the lake and the pagoda.



I got treated to a mini tour, then a nice dinner with Rong Hui and Mei Ying, another BF member. It was the closest to home dishes I've had since coming here. =D

I peeked into their dorm rooms, or slums by their terms... and for a good reason, poor thing. =P Made me quite thankful for my small hotel room. Got many a tip and language crash course from them too. =)

Seems like I talked quite a lot after all.. Next weekend I'll be on the trip to the Redmond campus for a 5-day visit, so the next post will be much delayed, especially since we have homework before, during and after the visit. =P It's hard work to be lucky!

Something So Right

Heard this song on the plane here. (That reference to China is surely just a coincidence.)

Loved the rather haunting atmosphere; have since checked out the whole album (ahem).

---

Something So Right
Vocal: Annie Lennox
Album: Medusa


You've got the cool water
When the fever runs high
And you've got the look of love right in your eyes
And I was in a crazy motion
'Till you calmed me down

It took a little time
But you calmed me down

Some people never say the words "I love you"
It's not their style to be so bold
Some people never say the words "I love you"
But like a child they're longing to be told

They've got a wall in China
It's a thousand miles long
To keep out the foreigners, they made it strong
And I've got a wall around me
That you can't even see

It took a little time
To get next to me

If something goes wrong
I'm the first to admit it
The first to admit it --
But the last one to know

If something goes right
Oh well, it's likely to lose me
It's apt to confuse me
Because it's such an unusual sight, oh

I can't get used to something so right
To something so right

Some people never say the words "I love you"
It's not their style to be so bold
Some people never say the words "I love you"
But like a child I'm longing to be told

They've got a wall in China
Hm, yea..
And I've got a wall around me
Yea..

It took a little time
To get next to me

First Week in Visuals

Here be pics. Mostly for Eka, who requested. =)

By a roughly chronological order, this should go first:

Cool motto, huh.

The large-sized dinner. The guy in the back was a Japanese intern (the one whom I talked to about J-rock and anime =D -- see previous post). Quite ex (each of us spent around 100Y), since they follow the international standard, I suppose. Service charge was 15% (!) ...owwie.

But on that note, only foreign-brand restaurants here would have service charges (as far as I've seen, at least). Local ones are mostly family-style, cafetaria-sized, with no service charge. My roommate (from US) was wondering if we should give tips and how much the standard is. I frankly don't really care since I don't plan on giving any =D *cheap cheap* but at that time I was perky enough to ask the waiter (bwaha) who told us, nope, no need.

Back home of course I never have to worry about this, Singapore is so practical they decide everything for you. But since it mattered to my roommate I suppose it might be useful info to put up.

Next, here's the view from our hotel room that I took one night when I was bored.

Nothing magical about that cube of light; it's the reflection of our lit room.

Thought they were nice colours. I was intrigued because the lights in those "blocks" kept coming on and off in brisk succession. Still haven't figured out why. As for the "rays", they were not planned. Those are actually the window curtains. ^^0

I did some search and asking-around about the type of electrical plug to bring, but still wasn't sure about it before I arrived. =P So here is a pic for whoever is planning to come. =) It fits many types, how convenient. The two-round-legged (pardon the non-terms) standard plug we get in Singapore or Indonesia, the parallel two-flat-legged, the triangular three- or two-legged (i.e. just fit the bottom two).

The day before work started we went to explore the shopping complex at Wang Fu Jing (王府井). Our first bargaining experience went rather... errr... ahaha.

By taxi from the hotel (Haidian district) to Wang Fu Jing, we passed by the Tian'an Men Square and the Forbidden City at its opposite. I would really like to visit these two places in the near future, but for now I've only got the distant view of them. =)



Here's (one part of) Wang Fu Jing's crowd:



This board caught my attention, ads for the 2008 Olympics at Beijing. They've even started selling the souvenirs in some of the shops. 6_6 That was Beckham, in case the resolution is not good enough to recognize him. I have to admit I needed to see the signature and the Chinese-adapted name (below) to recognize him. =$


Around that same area is St. Joseph's Church. Read from the guidebook that it's one of the most photographed sites. I realized it too late to suggest going in for a look. XP



Some random shops.. I just liked the colour scheme of this one. =D


And this one because it has that old-style door. Probably too blurred to see, though. We are still wondering, to date, whether those are fog or (polluted) haze.


A lantern-adorned shopping alley:



Nine million bicycles as the song says, not that I'm counting.. And that pavement is a nice view. They have several similar paintings further down the street.

And here's a local bemo. =D

We entered a small bookshop along the street, because we glimpsed some manga artbook there. I was so happy to see those going at 42Y each (S$8+) which would be perhaps one-tenth the price back home (depends, actually, but around that). Was about to get a Saiyuuki one for 40Y, but then I saw the cover was in bad condition, and the owner offered to get it replaced, so I'll need to return there some other time.

Should have asked for that same book for half the price =D seeing as I might not feel like taking another taxi ride there.. but we'll see. =P

Anyway, the moment we entered that shop, this was the sight that greeted us:

Cute horrrr. And he did this some more:


Well, aside from this store's keeper, I do have complaints about most shopkeepers I encountered. I put them into three categories: (1) the over-friendly ones (buggy and touchy) who turn nasty once you bargain too low or decide not to buy after all, (2) the ones you have no conflict with, either because they are polite or because the shops have fixed prices, and (3) the couldn't-care-less grumpy ones.

I couldn't decide yet if this society is courteous -- the people generally are not, e.g. they don't say a word when bumping you.. and sometimes it is even on purpose to get on their way. But a flyer-distributing guy on the crossroad quite amazed me with the amount of greetings he threw my way just while handing me that piece of paper: "Hi, this is such-and-such service from us. [I took it.] Thank you. Our store is just over there. [I said thanks and started walking away.] Thank you. Bye-bye. [I returned the bye.] 慢走." (common parting saying that literally means "walk slowly")

Some people are reasonably polite but they are just naturally loud so it's like they're yelling at you. =D I don't really have problems with these, but the grumpy shopkeepers really get to me, the way they're answering my questions like I'm such a bother.

I guess I do have a problem with this city's business system in general -- where everything is to be bargained. ^^0 This morning I helped my roommate bargain the cost for laundry -- imagine having to bargain even that. 0_0

Unless in supermarkets, the prices we see in stores are never the real price. We should really get a local to take us shopping next time -- how they cope with this system, I wonder. Most things are cheaper than they are in our homecountry anyway, but by local standards it would still be a rip-off and of course no one likes that feeling. =PP

This morning, I was walking around a nearby shopping street, and thought I might as well get an international calling card. First I entered the China Post building. Thought, civil service should be cheaper ah? Read in the guidebook that an IP card worth 100Y could go for 35Y (strange as that wording may sound) so that was the price I asked for. But the lady insisted on 50Y. What's more, she was type number 3, so I walked out on her. `_-

Later, found another phone shop; the guy wasn't sure if he had the card that matched my requirements (destination etc) so he called someone else to ask. That person probably told him the real price directly, because he simply gave me the price of 32Y, which I took up happily.

See, business-customer relationships would be so much better this way. `_'

Anyway, the nearby shopping street I was talking about is Zhongguanchun Shopping Plaza. They happened to have this African art sale, with the actual African ladies manning the place. =)


Some more pictures from around the plaza, since I quite like the glassy scenery.

That's all I have for now. =)

And oh, this is from a Beijing city online guide my roommie forwarded me:

"On the whole, Beijing is a pretty safe place. Your greatest dangers include crossing the road and paying much more than you should for your souvenirs."

The "crossing the road" part could be quite true, though Indonesian-road-trained people shouldn't need to worry. Simple Singaporean jaywalking skills also suffice. But it's probably more of a habit problem -- on my way to first day at work I was wearing formal shoes and so half my concentration went to proper walking. =D Seeing the zebra-crossing, I just walked onto it with my pedestrians-own-the-road attitude. As a result, a bicycle-riding man had to swerve very suddenly, yelling angry words at me. =P

Well, I'm getting used to things here, weather and food and roads (language is still taking some time..) that I'm actually wondering what it'll be like when I return to all the humidity and skimpy food portions back home. =DD

Unsettled Dust

the many ways
to plant your presence
in somebody's life,

the little things
to remind you
of something out of reach,

oh my,
how it's going to suck
when all this is over.