Meh.

So, I thought this would be a story about me in Beijing (Soof @ China and all) but I'm starting to become convinced this might end up being the story of a young asthmatic patient in Beijing. I missed yet another day of school today because I was exhausted and had a huge headache- but the thing is, I've never slept more in my entire life. Okay, so maybe as a baby, but still. I'm sleeping 7-8 hours a day! And I'm tired. How pathetic. Yesterday I  spent the entire day outside more or less- I went to get my iPod fixed and decided I wanted to walk to Sanlitun from one of the subway stations (a good 45 mins walk), walked back the same distance and at night I played football outside with some U. school people for two hours. And that is obviously ignoring the time I spend outside everyday. I keep saying I'm ill, but I don't think so any more- I only remember having felt like this back when I came to China for the first time (and didn't want to leave my hotel room and put up a big fuss about walking around, after which we luckily figured out what was going on). If it is the same deal, though, I'm at a loss as to what I should do now. I guess I should start taking the asthma medicine more diligently, but God knows I'm going to forget that.
Unrelated, it's starting to get cold here, especially in the morning and at night, so I'm washing an extra blanket to use. It's also starting to get reeeeally dry- everyone is complaining about dry lips and mouths, and I'm actually making my 2 liters/day minimum of water (I mean.. wow!).


Okay, so new plan: drink a lot of water, take medicine, take vitamins. It's gonna have to do, there is no way in hell I'm going to miss another class, I feel guilty enough as it is. Also, it's quite a lot of fun, I understand so much more of what's going on these days! And the teachers are very nice. Character class is tricky. We have quite a few students in the class who speak Chinese but don't write it. Combined with a teacher whose English isn't very good, the inevitable occurs- lessons are in Chinese. Impossible as it is, it must be good for something- ideally that 'something' being my Chinese. Although I'm making very good friends in this class too- that's quite awesome as well. I'm really going to miss all these people =(.


That's it for today! Love, Soof

Chinese

I am slightly proud of myself and ridiculously tired right now.

Proud because this morning I woke up on time, made myself a nice sandwich and a cup of tea, got dressed, packed my stuff and brushed my teeth before leaving for school. On time. Perfectly controlled. Non-tired. It was beautiful, just beautiful. Oh and also, I've been studying non-stop for two days for this stupid Chinese test. And tired- well it's more 'intellectually defeated', really. I haven't even reached grammar just yet, and already these words are swirling inside my head. Some internal monologue for you:

'Was it bàngōngshì... or maybe... bángōngshí? I'm pretty sure the gong was a gōng, but maybe it might have been gòng, as in yígòng, all together. Hey, wait, 'in total' was yī gōng, right? Wait a second! But... that's the same thing? Maybe I should check the characters for a second... Oops, same characters, so one of the two is PROBABLY wrong... hmmm... the teacher taught me one of them, wait what was teacher again anyway? Laoshi... eh.. lǎoshì? Let's look that one up again.. *sigh* damnit that was one of the first words! Lǎoshī, lǎoshī, lǎoshī, Soof, come ON! At least I know bù. Oh wait, bù changes tone! Oh F*** what was the rule for changing tones? I don't even remember where I wrote that down. Okay, let's just... eh, some old words, let's get some confidence for tomorrow. Chī, right, shénme, that's ok, jiǎozi, miántiào.. no. miàntiáo! Okay I've had it.'

In other words, this is DIFFICULT. Or maybe I'm just not very good at it, which is very possible. Anyway, I'm giving up for now, I'll see what happens tomorrow. Goodnight everyone!

The roommates as they are now!

Another week of class has been and gone. Next tuesday we're getting a big test on spoken Chinese- on the entire book. It's a big book. It's about 500 words in pinyin, as well as being able to make them into sentences. Ther hardest thing for me is the tones though. I can remember that a dish is called 'dzai', and I can even remember that in pinyin I'm supposed to write 'cai' (don't ask), but 'cai' alone means absolutely nothing and is completely wrong- because it's supposed to be 'cài'. It's not like french, where people would sneer at you if you missed an accent- it's just the wrong word. As if you say cat instead of motorcycle. No wonder Chinese people never understand what you're trying to say.  No wonder they laugh. The sentences we must be saying!

Smoggy Beijing

Pretty little temple-like
building at the top of a hill.

This week we went to a park north of Tien'anmen (sky-air-gate).  It's quite a big park with a few pretty high hills. I wonder whether these are man-made, but I expect they aren't, and in that case they're quite the freaks of geography. They have cute little temples on their tops and steep little winding rock-staircases to get there. It was a bad day in Beijing that day which was quite a pity because otherwise the view from up there is said to be amazing. Smog is weird- it actually looks a lot as if the city is shrouded in a soft, distorting, semi-transparent white hue. On a bad day, first thing you think is 'oh, it's a cloudy day', after which you realise you can't really see that apartment over there, which is actually quite close. And beyond that apartment is some kind of a dark shadow compared to the air next to it, so that must be an apartment too!

Stairs!

We've been having a few more bad days here. Every time it rains (which is not very often- I've had 3 'rainy' days since I arrived, and then it only really rains for a few hours, not like in endless-raining-Holland) the skies clear for a few days, and breathing is a fantastic experience. Well, I'm overstressing the point- in fact being asthmatic I had expected to be really bothered by the smog, but actually I'm quite fine most of the time. What gets to me more is that we're starting the cold period over here (already!). For the last 3 days it's been cold enough for Dutch and German students to start wearing warm-ish sweaters, so obviously my Ecuadorian friend is dying. As for me, I'm just a little colder than the Dutch students, of course. How's the weather in the Netherlands anyway? What's going on with the world? For the first time in 6 years I haven't touched a newspaper for a month and a half, and I feel like a hermit. I think we would barely get the news of a new world war, especially if China is not in it. Maybe if someone bothered to tell us, but to be honest I don't know the Chinese word for war. I wish I could read the newspaper... even though that might not even get me anywhere in China. I sometimes watch the English version of Chinese news, and that's all about China too.

I just liked this flower.

If anyone is wondering how the visit to the police station went- it is a great success story! As always when I want to go/do/get something specific I translated a few sentences into Chinese using Google translate and my own knowledge of Chinese (haha). I set of, first to ask where the police station was exactly. I asked someone who completely ignored my question and almost turned back (you try that kind of rejection when you're feeling sick in a country you don't know), but I managed to find someone who explained where it was. I walked into what ended up being the backdoor of the police station, which was actually closed, but because I was there and it was easier helping me than trying to explain it was closed, or maybe because the policewoman was a really good person, the whole thing was arranged in a few minutes. Which was nice, very nice. We need some successes here, to get over the times people don't understand you want a coke and bring you a sprite ('kuhluh' and 'schwepie'... I mean, really?!).

New Soof?
(Inside parent joke)

I ALSO met a Chinese friend of my Chinese friend-that-lives-in-Holland, which was... interesting. It's difficult to make conversation, since I don't really know what the glass houses are in China. Also, who pays what? She showed me around this really cool hutong and we went for dinner. Her absolute favourite? Chicken feet. Let me repeat that, just to make sure you understand this: Chicken Feet. So of course, I tried one, said that it tasted really nice and no problem, she could have the rest since she liked them so much! We kind of arranged to meet again, but I wonder whether that's going to happen- I mean, in Brazil that would mean little to nothing.


This isn't all I've done- it was actually a busy week after all! I'll be trying to keep the blog juuust a bit more updated, since it's come to my attention that some people actually like to read it or in any case do so ;-). 

Sick

So, Sophie is now laying in bed. Sick. I'd write ill, because I was taught by someone that being sick actually means vomiting or being close to that, but it turns out a dictionary contradicts that statement. Anyway, what do you do when you're sick and alone? There is no mom for me out here. So basically I have the full moral charge of not going to class today, and I took my own little pill and I made my own little tea with honey. But today I am supposed to go to the police station to say that I'm staying in Beijing another month, and that cannot wait for me to get better. Also, I really need food- yesterday all I had left more or less were onions and potatoes (incidentally: onions and potatoes make a great dish). And if I want to eat at all I'm going to have to cook eventually or venture to a restaurant to get take away. But there are also a few more complicated issues- to start with, in Beijing, where do I get the freshest air? Should I open the window or leave is securely closed? Should I turn on the air-cleaning mechanism in my room that looks kind of weird and doesn't really seem to help? Should I keep the plants where they are or get them out? All in all, it's difficult to just get some air worth breathing here. I'll leave you now- there's some Chinese tea waiting right here for me that I need to get to!

Alas, our crazy fun polish roommate left on saturday. So on friday, we set out with a group of 24 people to have dinner and go out. Have you ever tried walking into a restaurant with 24 people? Exactly. 
We ended up on two huge tables in a huge private room. Man, Chinese food is just REALLY good. I'm enjoying it so much lately! Noodles are not so much my thing, mostly because of the weird sauces they use. No, the way I like it is how Chinese people usually eat- in a medium-to-big group, they order lots of different dishes and everyone just choses and takes whatever they want to. Obviously, you get rice too- although hardcore Chinese-eating people will tell you that Chinese people only eat rice after dinner. Anyway, the magic words to remember are 'jigga' (means 'this one'- most Chinese restaurants have pictures of their food) and 'bu la' (meaning 'not spicy'- please, please, don't forget bu la, especially the first 10 times or so you eat chinese food). It's fun to eat this way- the food is varied, you can eat what you like and not feel guilty about eating everything (there's always SOMEONE who likes that last dish) and because you try so many dishes every time, you start getting a feel for what kind of food you like.  Which is good. The only detail is that you shouldn't be too squeamish about what it is you are actually eating- liver and duck's head are quite the treats here. 

Yay! Lost!

Anyway, after dinner we were supposed to go out, but my new Ecuadorian roommate wasn't feeling too well (there was a lot of smoking going on) and I didn't want to let her go home alone, so we took off. I must say, after the last night I didn't mind much at all. Obviously, the taxi driver didn't understand and took us to the wrong subway station, which immediately confirmed the need for me to be there. Now, you may or may not believe this, but of my roommates I'm the one with the best directional skills. I guess because I've biked and walked around quite a lot on my own, I usually know where I am and where I should be going, which is more than I can say for most people around here. I can actually read the Beijing map. What? It's true! Ask them if you don't believe me! I've led people around in the right direction looots of times!


SO that was it for friday, but I guess I became a bit ill (it was chilly and I gave my poor Ecuadorian roommate who has never known below 15 degrees weather my jacket) so on saturday I wasn't feeling very well. I guess the roommates felt the same, because after we said goodbye to the Polish roommate we just watched some movies. I mean, bonding is important too right?
On sunday we went for happy hour at the 'Drum and bell', a (kind of) bar I went to on my second night here. Happy hour is actually happy hours, a plan by which for ± 3 hours on sunday afternoon you can get as many of a chosen drink as you want for 5 euro's total. Needless to say, when we arrived we found a few people from the U. school already there. And then more came. By the beginning of actual night we had a crew out there! There's something about the U. school and their friends- this happens all the time. It's awesome! =D

Crowd =).

We had arranged with some of the people to go to the Summer Palace the next day, on monday, but in the end they bailed out on us (something about a headache?) and my Belgian roomie wasn't feeling too good either, so E. (the Ecuadorian roommate) and I went to the Summer Palace alone. When we arrived, we were shocked by the crazy amount of people. We might not have considered the implications of this being a national holiday ()=). So we got ourselves started on some nice Chinese meats-on-sticks (they're really good: bu la!!). After that we went in and started the crazy visit of the entire area- it's really really big. 

It had big colourful buildings full of detail, in the same typical colours as I've seen before in China and some very pretty little towers and shrines. There's a  huge lake within the Summer Palace area, as I've told you before, but apart from that it had little areas with lakes and typical 'walkways' (I'm not quite sure how they're called, see the picture on the right). I'll just tell you about the four things I liked the most. 
First one was a small lake enclosed by walls. You could walk around it, and there were lots of people just sitting down and relaxing, or feeding the fish. I really liked the place for its taste- usually important places look important and imposing, not beautiful an sich. 
We sat down for a while, and I heard a little girl explaining to her even younger sister that the small fish were called 'small fish' in english. I decided to agree, and next thing I know we were talking in our basic Chinese and English sentences (nice to meet you, ni jiao shenme ming, my name is, wo shi ba sui, etc). In the end we took a picture together, but E. has the picture on her camera and right now I have no idea where she is xD. In fact, that's a pity because she has pictures of the next thing I liked best- a little tower overlooking the massive lake of the Summer Palace. I might post some pictures of that later- it was really nice. 

Hmm.. let's just sit down?

Third thing was a building designed to be a theatre. We were just walking around when we saw lots and lots of Chinese people just... sitting there, on some steps. We figured they had to be waiting for something, so we joined them. They had been waiting for a little demonstration of how women danced in the time of the emperors (the Summer Palace is was built and expanded by emperors of different dynasties). The theatre was decorated vividly, and it had really weird stairs which were really cool. If I ever have a lot of money I'm definitely getting one of those for my house. As well as a lake like the one I saw. And round 'doorways' made of decorated wood.

Click to enlarge!

Come on, aren't they cool?

Which brings me to the fourth coolest thing I saw- a tiny exposition on furniture owned by the emperors. Mom, you would have loved these! They were mostly made of wood, carved painstakingly into intricate shapes. I don't have any good pictures of this, so a bad one will have to do. Because of the wonderful weather, it was actually worth it to have gone, even though the place was quite crowded- once you got out of the main tourist areas, it was quiet and nature-y. I even saw a squirrel running around carrying something in his mouth! I'll tell you about yesterday later- I'm really hungry right now, and I need to figure out where my roommates went xD. Bye!