Coming close to departure

I've lost my motivation to work! Help me!

As time gets closer to the day that I go back home, I get more and more lethargic, call it a Senioritis of sorts. I am, after all, graduating from BNU in the end of the Fall semester with a diploma, so why shouldn't I feel lazy. Well, it really depends. I haven't missed a class yet, but every time I encounter a morning class, which is Tuesdays and Thursdays, I seriously consider not going, but once I get to the class it's fine.

Not only am I getting closer to going home, but the other day when I went with Tammy and a couple of other friends to buy last minute gifts, Xiu Shui Jie (Silk Market or Silk Street) was already playing Christmas music, and this was in the beginning of December. They seriously get a move on things, probably to market to the everlasting flow of foreigners. It was extremely hard to bargain their, because of the foreigner flow that I just mentioned, so the salespeople knew that they could sell to other people for prices way higher than what we wanted. Either way, I think we're going to stick to the less popular, but still higher quality shopping districts to get our fix.

Also, there is just an overflow of changes in Beijing, the winter weather is starting to kick in, global warming ain't got nothing on Beijing winter. Actually, starting tomorrow, the weather is going to drop about 10 degrees for both the highs and lows. So today, the low was around 1 degree Celsius (which I admit is cold) and is going to move down to negative 13 and then negative 13 for the next day, followed by negative 9. Now THAT is cold. Not to mention that the highs are going to be around negative 1 to 0, consistently. Hopefully, we'll catch the snow and our wishes will be answered, you never know.


But as I mentioned before, how we are going home in less than 20 days, this also means that we are getting ready for our final exams. They are testing us on chapters that we aren't going to review with the teachers, how lame is that? Listen to this, in the time that we stay here (a whole month less than the other foreign students) we are going to test on 5-8, but then the other students, leaving in late January are going to test from 5-9. Does that seem fair? Testing on only 1 more chapter, with 1 month duration. I don't think so. An average chapter takes about 1 week to finish because we only have the class three times a week. I don't know about you, but that seems pretty unfair to me. I guess I'll just have to study extra hard. It's all for the better anyway.

But in other news, because you all know how I like to talk about new products on the market, I'm NO LONGER talking about the Blackberry Storm. It's failed me and will not reappear on my blog until it has a respectable review and has proved everyone wrong about how bad it is. But, as some of you may know, I've been trying to start some kind of new entrepreneurial venture. As of now, I've gone through about 10 different ideas, one of which really caught my attention, but has died down as of now. I'm back to the drawing board and looking at other start up websites to look for Web 2.0 and web start up inspiration. My review today will consist of two sites that I think are awesome:

1)Kongregate.com

AN AMAZINGLY ADDICTING WEBSITE that features flash games that other sites like addictinggames.com and armorgames.com have, but with a twist, it replicates the system of points and achievements that Xbox 360 has, which makes it more appealing for people to return and compete against each other in ranking. It also gives more incentive and more reward for people playing the flash games that they've been playing for years. If there's one website you should check this one out, but beware, it is addicting even if you aren't a gamer. Ask Tammy :).

2)Killerstartups.com

As I was looking for a website that showcased new start ups to get ideas, I stumbled upon this website. It is a killer. It reviews new web start ups daily, says why their good and what category their in. It even gives the option to paid members to see the numbers that these new start ups are making. I think it's a good website in terms of actively reviewing up to date Web 2.0 and more sites.

And we can't forget Top Gear:

Top Gear Season 12 Episode 5 also was an awesome episode. A few season back they aired a race between home mobiles driven by touring car drivers; this episode they took those same drivers and introduced them to different style buses (double decker, single decker, "bendy" buses, etc.) to do an "accurate" measure of what bus should be, and is best, for inner London driving situations.

I also bought the last Top Gear magazine (in Chinese) that I will ever buy in Beijing, if I don't come back and buy some more later :). It's the December edition. Sweet!

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Anyone ready for Round 7?

Bare with me, I was writing my post-Thanksgiving dinner blog, but was distracted. So, I'm picking up where I left off.

I just got back from the Thanksgiving Dinner sponsored by EAP, the "piece de resistance" of the EAP arranged dining events, and let me tell you, it was really all it was hyped up to be. The hotel itself was something to be 骄傲(arrogant) about. It was called Kempinski, one in a line of very, rich and extravagant German hotels. Inside the hotel, as expected, were marble floors, huge stair cases, rich expats, and rich foreigners. But what we were concerned most about was the restaurant: Kranzlers, noted to be one of few 5-star restaurants in Beijing.

The meal was delicious. I had about 6 plates, including 1 or 2 plates of desserts, which is a oddity in my diet. I ate so much that I felt like I was going to PUKE, I seriously stood up and walked around looking at the unyielding flow of food for about 20 minutes to make sure I didn't feel too sick or disgusting. Having this dinner, finally thanks to the efforts of the annoying guys who complain about EVERYTHING, we were able to have a nice dinner and give thanks for the things around me. I really felt nice at the dinner because it had really been a long time since I was in this type of fine dining with friends environment, though this time there was no family to help celebrate it. Something about the dinner just made me feel really happy and close to all the friends that I was with. Maybe it was because I was sharing a really great meal with a bunch of friends that I'd just made from my already 5+ months here in Beijing. Though Beijing has been really awesome and the learning experience in CHINA has been amazing, I think it's about time to go back.

Things I'm grateful for:
1) Friends celebrating Thanksgiving away from their homes in a nice restaurant.
2) The Peking duck served at the restaurant.
3) The desserts, ice cream and surprisingly the pecan pie.
4) Going home soon.
5) Experiencing the wonders of studying abroad, for real. Not a vacation.
6) Learning to really appreciate what I have at home after seeing China's poverty.

I think being in China has been a really good learning experience for me, not only in terms of studying abroad but as maturing as well. I know that sounds kind of corny but I guess being in China, during my 19-20 age shift was also important. I DO feel older and more wise, and I think that's a good thing. Seeing some of the things here and hearing about the bad economic status back at home has made me a lot more humble and look at things in a different perspective. All in all, I would say this trip AND the Thanksgiving dinner were perfect.







Now for some bad news:

To much disappointment, new reviews are back regarding the Blackberry Storm. Prior reports had shown evidence and reports that the new Storm was going to be a powerhouse for multimedia AND Blackberry famous interconnectivity. NOT! It turns out that it's very slow and sub par. Nick tested out the actual thing in the Verizon store a couple days ago and reported that, when trying to flip the phone to the horizontal state to view the options horizontally, it took up to 3 seconds for the phone to catch up and send the message to turn the screen. Not only that, but it turns out the OS is also glitchy and that it makes some messes along the way. They say it still is a good multimedia phone, but there still are a lot of things to be worked out before it can be great. Looks like I won't be looking forward to getting this phone anymore, as if I was anyway. HAHA.

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目前

I take what I said before about the weather back. Today was freezing. Upon being around 0 degrees Celsius, the weather today was also extremely windy, making it feel even colder than it actually was. Additionally, I was pelted countless times by the leaves that have now fallen off every tree in Beijing! Ok, maybe not every, but the wind was so hard today it knocked over rows of bikes that were parked outside the school and the apartment building.

I saw a BUGATTI bike today. Haha. It was funny, a good brand I bet. Not. I also forgot to mention one more thing about home that I am missing right now, fresh air and cigarette free restaurants. I just got back from a restaurant that, though the food is good, the waiters and waitresses are either too timid or too greedy, probably the latter, to ask people to stop smoking (even if there is a 禁止吸烟 sign, which means Smoking Prohibited). I so miss the fresh air...err the air quality in America.

On a more educational note, my teacher in "Reading and Writing" or 精读 class today learned how to use a Powerpoint Presentation. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but it seems that over the last two days she's caught onto the other resident BNU teachers and decided to be just as good as they are. Seeing as how she is not a teacher from BNU, but a "permanent sub", she doesn't have as much experience or knowledge about the school's system, the tests, and what to emphasize. I think that may have influenced my grade for the midterm, but it just means all the students in my class have to work a little harder. I hope her new teaching methods will be a lot more helpful to our class because what she was doing before, just lecturing and saying really complicated stories that we all didn't understand, yeah that wasn't really working.

As for a countdown, I'm still looking for a widget to put on my Blogger. It's changed since last time huh? Pretty neat. I'm going to try to mess with the HTML and maybe modify it to my liking and add more content. 26 days left.

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Playing Gears of War 2 in Piedmont

This is a webshot I took from the conversation I was having with my brother today. He was playing Gears of War 2 and wanted me to shout profanities at the other team through his microphone. I thought it was really funny so I took a webshot. I asked him if it worked and he told me to yell and then showed me the little icon that popped up whenever I spoke. HAHA. Soo funny. Man my bro is a kick, can't wait to get back and beat him up...though it might be the other way by the time I'm back.

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EAP Excursion to Cuan Di Xia

The weather is becoming consistent now. It's not fluctuating like it was a couple weeks ago. I've gotten accustomed to the cold now, but it seems like it's getting warmer and warmer, some people say it's because of global warming, who knows. All I know is that maybe this year, snow may come later, which is sad news for me because I wanted to see it snow in Beijing, or at least have time to go North to Haerbin and see the Winter Festival.

Anyway, Cuan Di Xia is in the countryside of Beijing. We took a 2 1/2 hour bus ride, which turned into a 3 ish hour ride back, to get there. Cuan Di Xia was an typical example of what we are studying in Chinese class now, Hutongr and SiHeYuanr. It's a typical old town in the old days of China, the 古代. Anyway, it was surprisingly fun and interesting to go around and old village where people lived during the time pre, during, and post Mao Zedong Cultural Revolution. You can even see how the Cultural Revolution affected the little town, the propaganda that still is pasted on the walls of the houses, aged with time. I took pictures of the aging propaganda and what it used to look like in traditional old Chinese housing establishments.

Here are some pictures from the event, there were SWINGS, but let me tell you now...they aren't the same as the swings we have back home...

So comfortable, see.

Some propaganda.

A typical hutong.

Cuan zi.

The city.

每个中国人都抽烟.

院子里.

In other news, the Storm release is on delay...turns out there were some problems with the Blackberry OS. The new OS was having problems so they installed the old one and tried to ship it out...不行. A lot of people complained and so now they are holding back on the order and people that preordered will barely make the holiday rush. They did a good article on the happening at Gizmodo.com which describes when you are expected to get your Storm if you ordered it already.

ALSO, Berkeley SCREWED ME. My Telebears Phase 2 is the latest freakin' date for Juniors. I SWEAR. They discriminate against the Piedmonters! HUH!? Is that it! Berkeley, make me get onto the waiting list for classes that I'm a major for and then give me the last freaking spot so you can jeopardize my chances of getting into the classes I need to graduate?! AND I JUST CHECKED AND ONE OF THE CLASSES FILLED UP. AHH! BERKELEY. NO!!!

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Winter in Beijing (An Indoors Perspective) and Thoughts on Home

Last night was the worst night of sleep I've ever had in Beijing, it's not because I had a test the next day or because I would be waking up within the next 5 hours to go on a "field trip" with our UC Program. Last night I was unable to sleep well because for the first time in Beijing, I realized how bad the ventilation and heating system is inside these dormitories/apartments.

Now I know why the locals are so fond of humidifiers...you need them to give you a good night's rest. I hadn't noticed it in the earlier days since they turned the system from A/C to heating, but last night I began to see how much of a difference the heating made in the indoor environment of my small room. The constant flow of dry heat dries out my skin and makes it pretty hard to breathe at night, I was forced to open the window and let in the freezing air from outside, which surprisingly let some moisture into the room and allowed me to sleep much more comfortably. The temperature outside was not too great of a problem compared to the uncomfortableness that was caused by the dry, recycled air.

During the day it's fine. I spend little time in the room because I'm either out eating lunch/dinner or in class, but when I come back to the room to study, I end up getting really dry skin and feeling really hot, when I know it shouldn't be this extreme. I can endure it during the day, because it's nothing a little lotion can't deal with, but at night when all you do is BREATHE, the dryness makes it so impossible. This is not even mentioning the awful feeling of being dried out everywhere and walking up to a sore throat in the morning to start your day. I WOULD by a humidifier, if I was to be staying in Beijing for longer than a month, but seeing as how yesterday marked the month countdown, it would be no use.

Aside from THAT problem, midterms went horribly. Well not horribly, just very unexpectedly not in my favor. I guess the testing system in China is a lot different than the states and it's something that I have to get used to in order to do well on the next test, but it's not a little OVER-preparation can't fix. But, I guess everything else is going well considering that this 6-month program is winding down and all the students soon get to go to their respective homes and get on with their lives. I don't know if I've ever written about it before but I talked to Tammy about how this program makes us feel in a "suspended state". It's not quite easy to explain, but it's simplest described as keeping us in a place that we're not moving or doing anything, that until we get home we can't get on with our normal lives. I feel like everything is at a standstill in China. I'm not saying that it's not fun finally living out the dream of studying abroad, it's just I finally realized that it's a lot harder to pick up and move away to another unfamiliar country that I had originally thought it was.

Though I can't admit to ever being homesick for America, I can say that I'm slowly getting sick of China. I think that this place is wonderful to experience and live the life of a student for the duration that I am here, or maybe a little less, but I don't know if I could ever move here, live and find a job permanently. That would be a decision that takes a long time to decide. I get so excited thinking about how short the time is I have left here and I think that means I want to go home. I want to see family, friends, live in Berkeley again and be able to DRIVE. I want to feel CLEAN again and feel more relaxed, something I feel like I can't really do all too well here. I will miss the daily cleaning of my room, which comes with rent that is 1/3 cheaper than the states. I will miss all the cheap, amazingly good food that I can get for $1-3 a day. I will miss all the cool friends that I made here and the ultimately the independence that I had here. But most of all, I think I will miss all the experiences and "excursions" that I went on here. There were a lot of feelings and things lost from my "US self" when I came to live half a year in China, but then I feel like I learned a lot of things about growing up and living on my own here in China. I think the financial crisis in the states only compounded my feelings of having to grow up and experiencing new things.

Here are a few things I look forward to when I get back:

1) My mom's cooking: perkedel, baked spaghetti, lasagna, her steak, the meatball soup she makes, Indonesian fried rice, temteman? (don't know how to spell), soto ayam, rawon
2) Nick's cooking: the risotto, the steak Nick makes (which isn't as "well done"), the barbeque, VEGETABLES, and the cereal that he always taunts me with over webcam
3) Driving a car, though I hope I haven't lost that skill
4) Playing my guitar
5) Playing around on my Blackberry
6) Sleeping in MY BED, my COMFORTABLE BED
7) Going to a nice gym
8) Getting to that gym by BIKE
9) I would say my motorcycle, but I'm afraid I've given that up for my own health (haha)
10) Wearing clothes that are nicer than t-shirts
11) Machine drying my clothes
12) Going to Barney's Burgers, Zachary's Pizza, Sushi, without being afraid of the quality of food
13) Seeing friends back in Berkeley
14) Hopefully going snowboarding
15) Working, because no matter how boring or grown-up it sounds, it's something that I really missed.

I've created quite a list for what I'm going to do when I get back, but I guess on the top of that list is starting to apply to get my real estate license. I made a promise to my mom to get it, and now it's something that is really exciting me. Also, I got a message from Facebook that the STORM IS OUT IN THE STATES! WOO!


I can't wait to get back home.

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Update on the Blackberry Storm! and Random News from the States

That's a long title for this post, but there was an article that I wanted to share that my brother told me about today. It was the story about a 7th grader, now 7'3'' and still growing, while it may seem amazing to think that someone could be this tall at such a young age, rivaling the heights of Shaq and Yao Ming, he also has a lot of problems that he is forced to face because of some chromosomal abnormality. Take a look at the article I found:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008194720_brenden22m.html

In other, more happy news, the Blackberry Storm is finally making its way to production and sales in the United States, I can't wait until it does. But, I guess I can wait until the first few reviews come out before I go ahead and even consider buying it.

http://siliconrepublic.com/news/article/11685/comms/storm-price-plans-revealed

I guess that's it.

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Another Day in the Beijing Winter

We all went to Ya Xiu again to buy some winter clothes, among the things that were purchased yesterday was a fake Puma jacket, that I got for 180 kuai, I think it's not a bad price considering the quality and the material, even though it is fake. But considering they started at 680 and then were pissed off when they finally sold it at 180, I think I at least got a decent price, which I guess you would never know with them. There is ALWAYS a set price that no store will go under, which is useful since all the little clothing stores in the market sell the same stuff. So that's why if someone asks you how much you've bought something for and you tell them a really low price, unless it's above or at that "lowest price possible", they will say it was impossible and you are lying...which you are. In the end, if you leave the sales person pissed off and angry with you, chances are you've done a good job.

And back to the reason of the post. This is why I bought the jacket:


We also, on that day, went to San Li Tun, looked at Coldstones with the prospects of buying a 50 kuai scoop and then to the Apple store where we messed around with the NEW Macbook and tried to get Alex's iPod fixed to no avail.

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Beijing Weather

This is what the weather is like this week, during midterms week. I'll give you two sources just to show you that it's not just a messed up reading. And no, it doesn't EVER get this cold in the Bay Area.

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E-Mail Addresses

I've had the same e-mail address for the majority of my online life until maybe about 6 months ago. Seeing as how I was coming to China, where the internet has proved itself to be unreliable and very slow, I needed an e-mail supporter that was simple and therefore loaded fast. I've stuck to Hotmail most of my life, but until recently I was realizing how many problems they have, especially with eating my memory. Trying to load Hotmail in China takes about 10 minutes, not to mention that every 6 months they change the template and headlines, telling me that the new service is better and faster....I'm still unamazed. I still wait the day where Hotmail will maybe catch on to the simplicity of Gmail and just make it as simple and Java/memory hogging free as possible. I think though, Hotmail is going in the direction of AOL Mail or something else, but by far the most user-friendly, fast, free e-mail service is Gmail, in my honest opinion.

I'm only saying this because just now I tried to log onto my Hotmail account, discovering that they had another new template that they promised was faster, but this time, I couldn't even access the "new message" function, I don't think they've kept their word in making it faster. But I do have to admit, it does look a lot more, "beta"-y? Well, it looks new.

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在北京的情况

Everyday in Beijing feels so gloomy now. Because we're officially in winter, at least in Beijing, the nights come at around 4:45 pm and it's already starting to get dark while I end class, if I have afternoon classes. It's pretty sad considering the fact that, IF I do have afternoon classes, chances are I've slept in until lunch time, whereupon afterward I immediately go to class. So, what this means is I wake up, go to a quick lunch, go to class and while class is still in session, the sun begins to set. I guess it's not so bad since the short days are also experienced in the US as well, but to top things off, my room is FREEZING all the time, probably because the building was built with poor circulation or something, it's China, who knows?

But especially right now, I'm sitting in front of my window, the coldest part of my room, with the window open. I'm only doing this because today they sprayed their third round of cockroach killing spray (the fumes are suffocating), not bad considering the first month they didn't try a single thing to fix the roach infestation problem. I think I may be to credit for this monthly spraying, I think after all the complaints and threatening to take it to the head of the Study Abroad Student Housing, they got the point and are making attempts to appease this angry American. HAHA.

On that note, let me describe how much I think I've changed since coming to China and being here for about 4 1/2 - 5 months. Now, whenever I hear English or see white people (they can be American OR European), I can't help but stare. I know it's bad, and I don't do it for very long, but I look at them as I feel like the Chinese looked at me when I had just arrived to China, fluently speaking English (though I feel like they still give me "the glare"). I've turned into one of them. Oh well, I guess that's what being in a country that's not your home will do to you.

With midterms coming up this week, I really shouldn't be blogging, but I also really wanted to show you guys a glimpse of what light, after-work traffic looks like on the "small" street outside my window. This street is hardly small, but in China they have classifiers of street widths: 路, which is a road, 街, which is a street, and 大街, which is an avenue. I guess there is also a 胡同，which they define to the meters across, I forget how wide. But, this street would be considered a 街. Something I would definitely consider much larger if it were in tiny Piedmont.

I'll give you two views:

The left view.

The right view.

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The Chinese and Election Day

The Chinese people, from what I heard on the Chinese news the other day, don't really care for the election. One of the reporters from CCTV went around Beijing, in particular, to ask people about what their insights were on the election and the win for Barack Obama. They didn't say much, aside from the fact that they didn't really care and that they don't really have an opinion. They also said, on occasion, how they didn't think that it had anything to do with them and it didn't effect them at all. Hmm...riiight...Some more involved Chinese people said they'd like to see what happens with President Obama and see what kind of things he can do with China and maybe "treat China better." This only makes me think of the policies that the Bush Administration had with the Chinese, maybe they weren't too good. The program didn't only represent that side of Chinese indifference to the election of the US President, but it also did a segment on the people from Kenya, calling Obama the "Son of Africa," expecting him to do some kind of intervention for the impoverished nations in Africa to bring them out of the current underdeveloped situation they are in...good luck. But aside from the known Chinese people indifference, there was a lot of celebration and gatherings from expats. A lot of people in China right now are actually Obama supporters, not a single McCain supporter, though I know he isn't the most popular in the US either. It was just kind of sad to hear that the Chinese didn't really care what the outcome was, in China either. It was something that one of the teachers in our class said, it's too bad that in a country full of overflowing capitalist potential that is demonstrated in the Chinese production of goods used around the world, one thing that they don't really work on is to have a voice of their own.

Either way, the Election 2008 hype died down shortly after the results came out and the speech, people don't really talk about it much now. Only the Koreans in my class talk about it with me because I'm the only American and Obama's name is funny in Chinese: Ba-La-Ke -- Ao-Ba-Ma: or 巴拉克 奥巴马.

I'm not going to lay in my opinions on Barack Obama, seeing as how a lot of people have their different views on whether he should or should not be. But all I will say is I hope he can prove to be as good a candidate as he's advertised and bring the US back to the status of stability and fix our financial crisis. I WANT A JOB WHEN I GET OUT OF COLLEGE! Either than that, it's actually quite cool to see how far America has come in the aspect that an African-American man can now become president by popular vote, something that was seen as ludacris not that long ago in the Civil War Era. Make us proud.

In other news, we are about to have our first set of midterms here at BeiShiDa. It's quite scary, considering all the overachieving Koreans are working much harder than they were when there wasn't a midterm next week, which was already A LOT. They make me nervous, I'm even starting to study a week early, something that was not even heard of from me when I was in the US at Berkeley, maybe these good habits will transfer upon returing back to the states. But regardless how much I want to study right now, I'm distracted by new things like games on www.addictinggames.com and nintendo8.com. I'm have nostalgia for retro Nintendo games. I swear it's that stupid electronic dictionary and the pre-installed Nintendo games.

The weather is also getting ridiculously cold, I'm confident in telling you guys that the temperature outside my room right now is about 4 degrees and the sun goes down at 5 pm. Even MY ROOM feels like its 13 degrees. I like how I do my explanations in metric now, I guess China really has changed my perception of the world after all. Haha. It feels like there is less pollution in the air because it's so crisp and cold, but it's just a facade that covers up the fact that the pollution and smog level is about the same as it was during the humid, sticky summer. It's maybe even worse in the winter, the small stores bust out the coal for their warmth, their energy consumption and dependency on coal turns to aobut 60%+ during the summer. I know... The weather also makes me really lazy and want to sleep all the time because I don't get very much sunlight, even during the day because of overcast. I'm so glad that I don't live on the East Coast in the states, then I'd really have this all over again, and ever year. 不行. It's also hard to imagine how I only have about 45 days left in China and the Olympics were soo long ago, about 3 months ago, to this very day. Wow. I better start wrapping things up, getting in the last friends so I can always mooch a stay at their houses around the world. Haha. Not kidding.

I got an invitation with Tammy the other day for an interview with a guy that was prior EAP class of 2005, he is friends with Tammy's sister and talked to us about a position with the US-China Forum/Symposium on Green Energy/Technology. That's not the official name but it's cool that we now might have a chance to participate in something that originated in the Bay Area, had a meeting in SF and now is in Beijing, China where we are and where Dianne Feinstein will be in a couple weeks. For those of you interested in what Tammy and I will be volunteering for, check this website out: www.uschinagreenenergycouncil.org. It'll be interesting to get involved in the states as well, knowing how Berkeley is such a big advocate for Green Technology and transformation to self-sustainance.

So I guess the countdown to 回国, going back home, begins.

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