Day 33, 34 & 35: Tsinghua University

This entry is babble.

I'm finally at Tsinghua Univeristy, one of the most prestigious universities in China. One of the Chinese girls in my program, Judy, said that when she tested to enter this school, she was 1 of 17 out of 350,000 to be accepted. She said she couldn't believe it. This is like the MIT of China, apparently.

My program started yesterday but we begin training tomorrow so I've been able to take it easy since my move over. It was a bittersweet goodbye to Jezebel, mainly because she peed on the floor as I left to leave, delaying my departure for 20 minutes since I had to mop the floor. And being the cheapsake I am, I opted to chugalug all my stuff by metro to Tsinghua instead of taking a taxi, which took an hour longer but saved me $5usd. Ha. I also met some of the Americans in my program, and went back to the pearl market to get some presents. :) I also met the rest of my group going to Guizhou. We'll have 2 Americans and 5 Tsinghua students. They're all super nice and I'm really excited to befriend them as well as the middle/high school students we'll teach. We're leaving on Sunday, the 6th, on a 30+ hour train ride to Guizhou, where we'll teach various topics about the US for 9-10 days before heading back. We will talk about the U.S educational system, the culture and customs, holidays, introduction of ourselves, our family and hometown, the history of US, and the election system, and give lectures each day as well as trying to get them to practice their conversational English skills. It should be fun.

Anyways, the previous day (Monday) was uneventful because I tried to be as lazy as humanly possible. I walked around for a little bit during lunch time, getting a nice HK lunch of bbq'ed meat with rice, and then bought more pens from Century Mart. I spent the afternoon watching Princess Diaries and Planet Earth, and then ordered delivery food with Jon for dinner. There was an intense storm in the afternoon and a downpour of rain. I hope the government is behind this because it was wicked cool and I hope to see more storms like that, very reminiscent of Guilin flood days. Anyways, dinner was DELICIOUS. We had italian food- I got a casear salad and chicken tortellini in a tomato basil sauce. And we watched more movies. Redacted, about a rape during the war in Iraq by US soldiers, and Hot Fuzz, a hilarious British comedy about the police force.

Bleh, blogging is tiring business. I was just at a place called Paris Baguette for lunch (no good) and now I'm at Starbucks. It's a combination of humidity, heat, wind, and smog outside but I don't know how much more I can take. Sometimes I imagine what it'd be like if I lived here. I think the past week of doing nothing would mirror my life if I were to move here. Doing nothing much during the day, and uneventful nights. I don't think my health is worth it.

It's windy again outside. It's amazing how this tiny bubble of Starbucks can transform my thoughts back home so easily and make me forget what country I'm in at the moment. The same wallpaper, mugs on the shelf for sale except for their China-themed ones, same tables and chairs, and a constant mix of English and Chinese fills the noise over a heavy scent of coffee aroma.

I've ordered a grande Vanilla Latte, am surfing the net, and listening to John Mayer's Gravity on my iPod. I remember being at the John Mayer concert at the Gorge (in George, Washington) a little more than a year ago. Drinking organic Henry Weinhard beer with Lindsey and swaying to Vulture as Mandy twirls in the walkway and Chris Betz jumped up and down yelling "Vulture! It's your song!" to Adam. It's almost like I'm back at home. It's also almost July 11th, one of my favorite 'holidays' to celebrate with Jake. We'd spend the day driving around town looking for 7-11 stores to get free slurpees. I think one year we went to 4. I wonder what my friends are doing back home for 4th of July. This will be the first time I'm gone in 5 years. I wonder if they'll end up on Matt's roof again, watching the Edmond's show. I wonder what the Americans in my program will conjure up to do... mayhem I predict. The guy next to me is chatting on MSN messenger, and was choosing a emoticon as I glanced over. I wonder who he's talking to.

This is seriously just babble.

-b

PS: If anyone has skype credits they'd like to use, my phone # in my dorm room is 5153 5047.
PPS: No Steph, I haven't haggled for milk in a bag... yet. I will someday soon just for you.
Amy- have you received my postcard yet? I'm glad you are enjoying reading this!
Kate- I wish I could detoxify my lungs in the Amazon, but I can't seem to find 2 free days. I hope you're having an amazing time, though, in Ecuador! Be safe!
Burrow- I miss you all! Hope you are all well!
Lily- love you!
Jake- Happy 7-11!
Sophia- the duck was uber good! We'll have to visit some Anthony Bourdain hotspots in Seattle when we get back!