mei guos and fa guos.

so this weekend was kind of out of control. more in terms of the fact that i went out friday night anddd saturday night. whew.
friday night was the party at the french people's place which was pretty fun. their contingent is HUGE, at least 20-30 people. i still haven't really met everyone. but anyway, so the party mostly consisted of mingling and talking with a whole bunch of different people which was pretty fun. there was alcohol but nothing like certain parties in the US. no crazy alcohol games and whatever. just sipping on drinks and hanging out. it was great.
but then some people suggested going to Vic's which is this big dance club in salitun [which i'm guessing is the 'party' district cause that's where all the bars and whatever seem to be]. some of us had never been so they were trying to convince us to go. and we did. we somehow all got in for free which was sweet. the place was pretty cool but so LOUD. i've been in loud, noisy clubs before but this was out of control. anyway, apparently one of the guys had a hook-up or something cause we got a little couch/table area and there was fruit and drinks and all that. and then one of the waiters brought over buckets full of ice which had sparklers in them and reallllly tasty drinks in nice glasses. it was so random! it was a fun night overall.
then the next night, the french people called us again and we decided to meet up with them for dinner. so we all met up [although greg/alan/phil got lost AGAIN]. after everyone got to the meeting spot, we headed over to the restaurant but they couldn't accommodate all of us [the french contingent is real serious. they have at least 20 twenty people in their group all the time]. so we spent the next like hour and a half trying to find a place. but eventually we all kinda split into separate groups. so the group i was in kept walking around for a while and eventually we ended up at hooters.
...
now if you know me, i'm a women's studies major/feminist and not so big on the exploitation-of-women's-bodies-etc kind of thing. but it was late, we were hungry, and most people just wanted to eat at that point.
it wasn't THAT bad, relatively speaking. but i was so uncomfortable with all these women [esp. since they were women of color] walking around in super tight short-shorts and slightly low-cut tank tops. they were all really sweet and SO PETITE. it was a little scary. the food was american, i.e., hot dogs/burgers, and way over-priced. and they had all these slightly sexist signs up. and of course, sports was on the television. it was just....surreal. someone who has an asian fetish would be in heaven here. 'fetishized/exoticized asian women in tight clothes serving me food! YES!!'
afterwards, we went to this small club where we chilled and smoked hookah. it was nice, albeit somewhat awkward. the conversation wasn't flowing very well for some reason. then we all took taxi's home and called it a night.
it's been pretty fun hanging out with them so far. to be honest, i didn't expect them to wanna hang out with us so much. i thought they'd call every once in a while and that would be it. but we see each other pretty often since other kei people have class with them. so most of the time we'll end up going out to lunch after class is over [although we usually have to split up] and then they invite us to stuff on the weekends. but yay for making new friends!

i met this asian french girl in my class the other day. she asked me where i was from and i told her america and she was pretty surprised and said 'you don't look american' which i'm not really sure what she meant by that. did she mean i didn't look american cause i'm of asian descent? i dunno.
and then this other french girl we've been hanging out with asked me about my ethnicity and i told her chinese. and this other asian french girl then asked if i was mixed and was surprised when i said i wasn't. i find this interesting since i got that question a few times while i was in japan as well. or else people thought i was south east asian. i've always felt like i didn't like your typical 'chinese' person, whatever that even means. i dunno.

homework!

lgbtqi.

so, today in class, we had to practice conversations whereby we were referencing someone's girlfriend. when my partner [who is female] asked me about my 'girlfriend' and everyone kind of started nervously laughing. and then the teacher suggested to change 'girlfriend' to 'boyfriend.' and then everyone started laughing. it was so awkward. and then something similar happened in my comprehension class and it was, again, awkward.
i wasn't quite sure what to do so i just nervously laughed with everyone else. :( i wish i were brave enough to have said something about it but had no idea how i would have said it in chinese [teacher/classmates only really all understand chinese].
i'm curious to learn more about the lgbtqi community in china. my assumptions are that being someone who identifies as lgbtqi is still rather taboo but i have no idea. but just from my experiences today, it would seem that this might be true.

i also met a japanese girl in my class today and since she only knew japanese/chinese and i only know english/chinese, we spoke only chinese to each other, with a few japanese words thrown in there. it was fun though! really forced me to practice my chinese. she was really sweet though. we also talked to a korean guy in chinese [she spoke to him in some korean] which was a bit difficult but still interesting, nonetheless. and i chatted with this french guy who sat behind me. all in all, i felt it was a productive day in terms of meeting new people. i hope this continues!

still sick.

Classes started on Monday and it's fairly intense. I've got class starting at 8am everyday until 11:30am [or else ending at around 10am and starting again at 1:30pm until 3:00pm]. and then it's divided into sections. so some days i'll have speaking or listening or comprehension.
i pretty much understand everything the teacher's been saying [thank goodness] and most of it isn't anything too over my head. when they were interviewing us about our skill level, they said that my speaking and listening seemed pretty good but the grammar/reading/writing was def. at a lower level. so i could either be in the more advanced level where my speaking skills and whatever would probably be at about the same level as everyone else or be in the more elementary level where my speaking would be better but my reading/writing would be at about the same level as everyone else.
I decided to go with the latter. My speaking may be slightly better but my reading/writing is absolutely terrible. sooooo better to start from the beginning, i feel.

so the thing that i like about this program is that i've been meeting quite a few other international students. whereas in tokyo, i felt it was mostly just american students vs. japanese students with a few chinese/taiwanese students and a sprinkling of those from europe.
within the last two days alone, we randomly met someone from taiwan and his friends from wuhan, and a whole bunch of french people. there are also a lot of people from korea, indonesia, germany, etc. needless to say, it's more diverse which i'm really happy about. i think that was definitely one of my regrets about tokyo - not meeting more international students. cause i feel like that's one of the reasons you study abroad, right? to meet other people from around the world.

the campus here is huuuuuge. at least, compared to uic. definitely takes some getting used to.

we went to a market yesterday with the taiwanese [andy] and wuhan [rain and shine - these were their names, no joke] that had these pretty awesome caramelized strawberries. this is also the market famed for selling scorpions/starfish/sea horses/etc. on a stick. i wasn't quite in the mood for any of that, but rain graciously bought us all mutton which was pretty good.
there was also a market there and so we walked around there for a bit. a few of the people in my group are getting pretty decent at bartering. i have yet to do it yet. i don't want to for some reason. i almost feel kinda bad about doing it. i dunno.
afterwards, we wandered around the area and ended up at some hold in the wall bar. the drinks sucked and were way over-priced [even for chinese standards] but it was fun to play foosball and pool and junk hang out.
they're only in town until saturday but their business may move to beijing so hopefully we'll be seeing more of them in the future!

we also went to a place called silk street a little while ago and it was craaaazyyyyy. it's essentially a bunch of stands set up right next to each other with people standing and asking you to buy stuff as you walk past. it's freakin' intense. the stands are small and five million people are talking to you at once. and if you say no, they'll insult you, grab you, etc. ROUGH. but i guess it's good that way since then i won't be tempted to buy stuff. i so wanted to stop because i saw racks and racks of sneakers but.....yeah. sigh.

can i also say how much i'm enjoying only paying ~$2 - $4 for a meal? so awesome.

breathing pollution.

it's weird. i can post and all that [obviously], but when i try to see my public blog, i can't get to it! damn you china and your censorship laws. i can't even get to xanga at all. sadness.
so i definitely developed a slight tickle in the throat/coughing-up-my-entire-lungs after yesterday. i mean, i realize that as soon as my plane landed in beijing, i was breathing in pure pollution [not that i wasn't back in the states. but you wouldn't believe how bad it is here. srsly] but hot damn! it was okay and i was doing alright until a few days ago when i got semi-sick. a few of my friends in my program had gotten sick so i guess they gave it to me. gee thanks. anyway, i had trouble swallowing, felt incredibly dehydrated, and had a dull pounding headache. FUN.
got over it eventually. sort of. but then we decided to walk to the area around the olympic stadium, aka the birds nest, and the air was like, 5x worse there. you could feel the dust and shit coating your throat. it was pretty gross. so ever since then i've been coughing and hacking and it's been rather disgusting.
now i can see why everyone here spits all the time. yuck.

also, there doesn't seem to be any kind of sense to how people drive here. people rarely use blinkers. they just kinda swerve between lanes, trying to figure out the fastest route. i mean, you get so freakin' close to other cars, it's unnerving. and the walking lights are so short!! not fun. and then there are some drivers who don't even observe when it's a red light and keep on driving. not cool when you're crossing the street and you walk past a car that's stopped but then the car next to it comes out of nowhere and almost runs you over. goodness.
i've also noticed that my friends and i are like, the only people that run to cross the street. everyone else just kinda keeps on walking at the same pace as they were before. i feel like an idiot but i'd rather live thanks. the pedestrians seem to be almost just as bad as the cars/bikes/mopeds. they do whatever they want, even if it's not their turn.

i feel like china is going to turn me into a really rude person. i mean you kinda have to be like that if you don't want people walking all over you [both literally and figuratively]. like, we were waiting in line to get tickets to the science & technology museum yesterday and my friends and i were clearly next in line and these other chinese people just cut! bastards. i was about to throw them to the side and ask them what the hell is wrong with them that they can't wait their fucking turn. hooray for inside voices. but yeah, i've definitely started pushing and shoving and all that. i barely even say 'sorry' or 'excuse me' anymore. oh boy.

when we went out dancing a few nights ago, we went to a place called pyros which was filled with ALL FOREIGNERS. no joke. there were a few asian faces there but i dunno if they were from china or elsewhere and didn't want to make any assumptions. anyway, that was kind of strange. and then we went dancing next door at propaganda which was fun. mostly chinese. but it was interesting to note that almost all the music played was from america. i think we maybe heard one chinese song total. oh well.

classes start tomorrow [at least the chinese language ones do] and i'm a little freaked. i mean, i'm still in elementary chinese but am slightly higher up. oh geez. i was looking through the books i had to buy and some of the directions are all in chinese and i'm like WTF?! I CAN'T READ ANY OF THIS. it's gonna be rough. i've got class monday through friday, each day starting at 8am. UGHHHHHHHHH. and at least for 3 hours, if not more. it's gonna be intense. and that's not even including my two electives! WTFFFF. this is gonna be freakin' crazyyyyyy.