WE HAVE TO GO BACK.....

...>.<

Hey,

So it has been about 3 months since I updated last...It's a long story, which I don't have time to tell now because right now I'm in my uncle's house in Hong Kong supposed to be packing for my flight to Chongqing at 1:50pm today. In short, my laptop died because it was too hot in beijing and the motherboard burned up...but I got a new laptop right before I came to HK which I have yet to try out properly as I had to leave shortly after getting it. It seems pretty cool tho.
Samsung 15.6" wide screen, 4GB DDR3 ram, 320GB hard drive, Ati Radeon graphics card, 2.4Ghz intel dual core processor...The only problem with it is that it has windows vista...Chinese windows vista...so its gonna be fun working out what everything means, although I will remember how to do most things by location and picture...haha, at least I'll be practicing my chinese as I use it...

So the reason I came to Hong Kong was beacause my student X visa ran out on the 2nd of July, so the only way for me to extend my stay in China was to either apply for another course, pay the fee and then get my student visa extended or else leave China and get an L (tourist) visa. As you can tell I went for the latter, if you do decide to do this please take into account that the Chinese visa office in hong kong may only be able to offer you a 30 day per entry visa...which sucks if yo're supposed to meet friends in beijing in 31 days. I didn't expect that I could only have 30 days so actually I had to cancel my flight back to China and wait 4 more days in Hong Kong until 30days was enough for me to travel around China, meet my friends in Beijing and then go to Japan. I'm lucky to have relatives in HK kind enough to take me in and let me use their laptop (thanks Joyce) even if it is a macbook with small macbook keys...but that a rant for another day.

I better make sure I'm finished packing and ready to go, 30 mins before my uncle collects me and takes me to the airport >.<. I plan to update my blog with details of my travels and also about my life in Beijing while I was stuyding in BLCU.

BYE BYE A+班 MISS YOU ALL!

Still Alive...

Hey everyone!

Yes! I am still alive...I just haven't updated in a while. Before coming to china I had the impression that once i got home from class I would have nothing to do so then I could update my blog. In reality, I have so many things to do I don't get them all done. Even on days that I don't have any plans after class, I still don't get much done because I have to catch up on sleep...

Anyway, enough with the excuses...time to continue my story...albeit in slightly less detail than the last post...there's too much to write about...


Arrival in Beijing
So with the easy part (finding my name on a sheet of paper) over and done with, I had to spend the rest of my first day in Beijing with Mr. Han, the agent of my apartment who's english was non existant. Using some basic chinese I told Han that i needed to buy a mobile phone to use in china and also change some money. The thing about having a basic knowledge of a language is you know how to ask the questions no problem...but when the person replies to you, you dont really have a clue what they say (hey, that response wasn't in my text book!!). He said something about getting a phone somewhere else and waited for me to change money. I had brought enough cash with me to pay for my rent and my college fees, but when you change euro to RMB you suddenly find yourself with a lot more notes...The 100RMB note is the biggest note in china and its only worth around €10...I felt like a robbed a bank or something. I had to be really careful with dividing my cash into different pockets etc so it could fit and also be safe...Still, I might have well just stuck a large sign over my head saying "Foreigner in Beijing, rob me please" Luckily enough, I didn't enounter any problems...

I got into a taxi with Han and made some would be awkward converstation had we understood each other. We talked about the weather and soccer? Apparently he's a huge soccer fan and really liked the Irish player "Keane" I couldn't tell from the Chinese name if he meant roy keane or robbie keane but either way I told him that he is from the same town as I am and he was impressed.

After a 30-40 min drive (that didnt even cost 10 euro) we arrived at 五月华庭 （wǔ yuè huá tíng) my apartment complex. I was taken to an office on the 3rd floor because my room wouldn't be ready until 6pm. Han said he would treat me to lunch and then help me buy things for my apartment in a nearby shopping centre. We got food in jìshuǐtán, an area about 10 mins walk away from my place. I didn't know what I was eating but it was good...first meal in china! wooo..Then accross the road to 新华百货 xīnhuábáihuò(not sure of the last tone or the characters >.<). xinhua is a huge supermarket which also contains a wumart(hypermarket). I followed Han around as he told me what i would need (At this point i hadnt seen my room yet..even the temporary room i would be stayin in for the next 10 days) so I just let Han pick things out. When we were buying bed clothes he was haggling with the woman at the counter...I didn't know what they were saying but they showed me everything I was going to buy and allowed me to choose different colours etc. I got all my bed stuff for €60 (later I found that in wumart i could have gotten them for a lot less...but whatever...the quality of mine are better...and aparently wumart sheets give you a rash...haha :P) In wumart I picked up some daily essentials like shower gel and shampoo...etc got a couple of 10cent cups and beakers and a towel. Shopping in wumart is fun, it's so cheap you always end up carrying lots of bags home. I didn't buy any food the first day but I did get myself a new phone. It's pretty nice (green & white) and also can type in chinese and english, altho the input method did take some getting used to. http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/345/345003.shtml heres some pics of it. Mine doesnt have the cool panda on the back tho...apparently you can get different covers for the back but I don't really need one... After all that shopping we returned to the office where I was asked to sign the contract....I didn't really know what they were saying so I had to call Winter Gourd (sorry babe). It was 5:30am >.< She translated for me and all was well. I signed, paid 3 months + 1 month deposit + agent fee and they finally brought me to my room. The room I stayed in that night was the 1st of 2 temporary rooms I had to stay in before going to my real room....but that was 10 days away...

With my first day in china finally over, I had my long awaited sleep...

In Beijing!

I really meant to post earlier, but with all the things happening i haven't gotten around to it.

So today is my 5th day in beijing! I can hardly believe it. I have survived 5 days on my own in such a foreign city with a very low level of chinese...saying that, these past 5 days haven't been without their lost in translation moments...

I guess i should start with my flight and my 24+ hours of traveling...although it seems so long ago now. It took a total of 3 flights to get to my final destination, Beijing. The travel agent said it would be cheaper if I flew to HK first and then to Beijing (€200 cheaper), it also gave me the option of changing the return date of my flight if something comes up for a nominal fee(€100).

Cork -> Amsterdam : Aerlingus
Nothing bad to say about the flight, it was a full plane so I had to sit next to a villager...

Amsterdam -> HK : Cathay Pacific - Boeing 747-400
Great plane! had a window seat and there was a gap between me and the villager. There was a large widescreen LCD on the back of every seat which had on demand movies/tv shows and games, as well as lots of music albums and radio shows to listen to. The games still don't compare to the SNES games i played on a Virgin Atlantic flight to HK before, but at least they had a large selection...most of them beijng puzzle games or shotty flash games, i only tried a few and decided it would be better to watch a movie...or 4. The flight was over 10 hours and there were 2 meals(3?) The only con about this flight is that because there was a villager on the aisle seat i had to wake him up or disturb him if i needed to go to the bathroom...luckily i only had to go once..

HK -> Beijing : Dragonair (haha love the name of this flight...kev sent me a text telling me to evolve it so it would get to beijing faster)
This was another big plane, i had the aisle seat this time but i didnt need to go to the bathroom, the flight was only 3+ hours. They should quantum of solice on the overhead monitors but seeing that movie once was almost once too much. The food was pretty good on this flight, but I never really had anything against airplane food. One thing I'd like to mention about this flight is regarding the villager who sat next to me. He looked like a character you would see in an asian drama. Donning the finest designer clothes, from his burberry pants to his shiny Gucci watch. It was my first encounter of a "little emperor" (a name for a condition affecting both parents and their one child. This occurs in urban areas of China, Beijing and Shanghai. It is considered to be an indirect result of the one child policy. With both parents lavishing attention and resources on their one child, the child becomes increasingly spoiled and gains a sense of self importance and entitlement). Anyway, he didn't do anything overtly little emperor-ish...but i could feel it, it was his AT Field...The flight went well but when the captain said we are about to land and i could only see white "clouds" outside the window, I was a little worried. As the plane got lower i realised it was beijings famous Smog. Actually it was a sunny day in beijing, "clear" some were saying, but if you looked into the distance all you could see was a grey/white haze. At least it was warm.

I walked through beijing capital airport at top speed to beat all the other passengers to the visa desk. The airport is really nice, I'm no architecture buff, but it looks really cool, and its huge. It reminds me of the birds nest. It was definitely well planned. I got past the visa desk surprisingly fast, and i wasn't even forced to press the smiley button for great services received, i did it of my own accord ^^. I got the train to the baggage collection and didn't wait long to find mine.

At last, the moment of truth. As I walked through the "nothing to declare" section of customs, towards the arrival hall, i kept picturing my name in simplified chinese "huang hua jie". I entered the arrival hall to see 100's of beijingers staring at me (the slow people were still waiting for their bags). I scanned the hall anxiously looking for my name. There were many signs with names in various languages but i couldn't see my one. Just as i reached the end of the arrival section i saw it, a glossy A4 page with the characters "黄华杰" drawn on with a black Biro.

"Mr Han?"
"...eh..yes, come"

10 hours to go and still not packed...

Hey everyone and welcome to my blog!

Two years ago I enrolled in a Mandarin night course at University College Cork, with a knowledge of only a handful of mandarin words I began learning spoken Chinese. Now 3 night courses later, I know about...2 handfuls of mandarin words...and, I never thought I'd actually say this, but I'm heading to Beijing to study pǔtōnghuà! 

My flight leaves at 6:20 tomorrow morning...yes...thats less than 10 hours for me to finish up any little bits and pieces, pack and get to the airport. Of course writing a blog is really the most practical thing to do at this time...*doubtful* yeah...whatever! but at least its somewhat constructive...

My flight goes from Cork to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Hong Kong and finally HK to Beijing. yeah its a lot of traveling so I must make sure to pack plenty of books/magazines/DS or psp games to keep me occupied...although sleep would be my best option, I wouldn't mind a 24hr sesh of FFVII...too bad the psp battery life is about 6 hours? Maybe I'll pick up a mens health in the airport and get motivated to find a gym asap in Beijing...but that's a different story.

Hmm...so its 9pm which means that winter gourd has finished class...I better call her and tell her that I will miss her a lot and that I am sad that we will be apart for so long. I don't know why/how she has gotten it into her head that I would feel otherwise...

ps. When I arrive at Beijing airport, my landlord will be there waiting for me holding a sign which reads "黄华杰" (huánghuájié my name in simplified Chinese)....hope i can recognise my own name >.<