Day by Day, Back in The Bay: 去内蒙古以后

The Chinese Olympics Committee is so ingenious...

As I was sitting in McDonalds eating my McNuggets, for the 5th time since I've been to China, I realized two very different but interesting things:

1. By implementing the slogan "Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni" and therefore creating the 5 Beijing Olympics symbols (Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini) the Chinese economy basically x5 their profits. In comparison to previous Olympics, for example the Athens 2004 Olympics ugly mascot, the Chinese Olympics will generate 5 times the revenue because there are 4 more mascots to buy to "complete" the package, which everyone will be bound to do. But not only that, the mascots are all so cute, who wouldn't want to go on an Olympic spending frenzy?

2. McDonalds in the states is viewed as something for people who are in the lower economic bracket, people who can't afford good food eat "fast food". However, in China, going to McDonalds is seen as a place that is frequented by people with money because the prices are relatively the same in the US as it is in China, therefore the people that can afford it are from a larger and richer economic bracket. The culture is therefore very different. But also, when I was in Wangfujing eating at McDonalds (trip #4 to McDonalds), Tammy pointed out how there had to be at least 5 different races represented in that one restaurant. McDonalds is a really big deal outside of the states.

So, aside from those realizations I should update about the last five days. I just came back from Inner Mongolia this morning. We took another red eye 10 hour train ride back to Beijing, just the same as we took going to Inner Mongolia (which IS a province of China, unlike Outer Mongolia). We at so much food there, but not all of the meals were good. I only recognize a couple of the meals as "edible," some of the others seemed either so dirty or unappetizing that I will only mention their dirtiness and lack of appeal.

Day 1 Inner Mongolia: We arrived in the morning, went straight to breakfast and then to the DESERT! In the desert we had a lot of games to play. These games were more like activities. They had the desert car ride, the space ball (basically a huge plastic ball you roll in), camel rides, and more. I only went on the desert car ride (a fast ride in an open car driving in the rolling sand dunes), the long and very hostile camel ride (which was accompanied by an argument in Chinese about how the camel leader had no manners and was very rude), and finally a ride where you sit in a wooden box and slide down a gigantic sand hill (where I got a lot of sand in my eyes). After the sand slide, I ran up the hill to get to Tammy, who was still waiting at the top. It was a lot farther than I thought and running while inhaling sand didn't feel very healthy either. I felt like death.

Day 2: Basically a lot of driving around led us to the grasslands, where we had a nice lamb dinner, though the presentation of the entire lamb standing, head bobbing, fried in entirety made me lose some of my appetite. We ate, slept in Mongolian yurts (basically a short tent that fit about 6 people, in Chinese: 蒙古包), and then the next morning rode horses and had the opportunity to ride ATVs and Motorcross bikes, all of which were not affiliated with EAP and therefore not trusted. One of my friends ate shit because the ATV wheel fell off...in the end they expected him to pay for the broken wall. What shady Mongolians. I felt like they were always cheating us.

Day 3: I was pretty satisfied with the trip, but as I said, I could have done without it. It was a whole bunch of travelling and the rest was a bunch of nothing, just a few activities.

Anyway, one of the highlights of the trips was during one of the bus rides. Our bus driver, to start out, was a little crazy. He drove really fast and honked at all the cars in his way. Tried to pass large trucks holding cement on narrow roads and full speed over bumpy country roads, not paved. So...one day, on the way to lunch. We are playing a game of Mafia in the bus, as usual, when all of sudden we stop. I see our driver bolt out the door and run up to a small bus parked in the middle of a large street right next to him. They both start cursing and the only thing I get from it is "cao ni ma", which is "fuck your mom" in Chinese. Man, they were going at it. I thought someone was going to go down, but the other driver and our tour guide helped to break it up. We were on our way after that, but after that moment they never let our driver lead the 4 bus convoy anymore.

We also had A LOT of lamb: lamb hot pot, lamb grill, lamb legs, lamb, lamb, lamb. AHH. Anyway, we're back now, as of yesterday, only to realize that the fall people, which includes me, were not allowed into campus. The Olympics is clamping down on our campus because the USA Basketball Team is practicing here at a new stadium. So, if our cards don't swipe, we're not allowed in. We got it fixed, but we were worried we wouldn't make it to class this morning, haha.

ALSO! My A/C in my room is broken, and it is a very painful experience. My computer, as we speak is overheating, adding to the heat. It's already about 29 degrees in my room, I'm sweating like a pig, but I want to update you guys on Nei Menggu and coming back to an Olympic take over in Beijing. I'm going to San Li Tun today to get some American food and maybe buy a computer fan. Yesterday I went with Tammy accompanying her to meet our teacher's daughter, who she will be tutoring in English. There I went around the 7 floors of a coooooool mall. I ended up having to buy dark denim jeans because I felt bad about wasting this one fuwuyuan's time. She was nice, listening to my bad Chinese. She didn't know much English, so I ended up having 3 people tend to me, I HAD to buy something. They are nice pair of jeans but I think I'll return them so I can buy a nice shirt from Nike and just use some Gap cards I have in the US to buy my denim jeans.

Picture TIME!