Hi friends. So while I was gone, I went to a lot of places that I went to before like the 798 art district! I learned a lot of important, valuable lessons this week; for example, don’t let your friends take the taxi in front of you, especially during rush hour. Four of my friends and I went to 798 and took a taxi because we thought it would save time as compared to taking the subway. Going by taxi was supposed to take 30 minutes, and taking the subway was supposed to take around an hour and a half. I found a taxi waiting near my dorm’s entrance and let three of my friends go first because we couldn’t fit five people in the car. They left and five minutes later my other friend and I found another taxi. It took us an hour and a half to get to 798 because we got stuck in Beijing traffic, and trust me, it’s way worse than LA traffic. We thought the other group got stuck in traffic too, but they said that they were waiting for us for an hour. Yeah, so in Beijing, don’t ever let your friends get a taxi before you. 好的 (good).

Oh yeah and the art district was pretty cool I guess. We took a lot of cool pictures, so that was fun.

I also went to the Silk Market again and didn’t get ripped off as much this time, so I think I’m getting used to this bargaining thing. I got a T-Mac Orlando Magic jersey, a pair of Adidas NMDs, a t-shirt, an I <3 北京 (Beijing) shirt, two phone fans, a wallet all for less than a hundred USD. I think I did well, but I’m not sure. I still probably got ripped off. I also went to this place called Dirt Market, flattering name I know, and it was nothing like the Silk Market. The Silk Market was in this huge air-conditioned building, whereas the Dirt Market was a huge outdoor marketplace. The Silk Market sold a lot of fake western things, while the Dirt Market sold a lot of traditional Chinese things like paintings and jade stuff. I didn’t really like the Dirt Market, but I thought it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

Hi friends. So it’s been less than a week since I last posted, but I did a lot of cool stuff! For instance, I went to the 798 Art District and was immersed in Chinese art. To be honest, I didn’t think have any expectations for this Art District, but I was stunned.

I had thought that the 798 Art District would display a lot of traditional art around its galleries, but I found more modern art than anything else. Some of the art included a headless Chairman Mao, political cartoons about North Korea, and paintings/drawings depicting the issues China is currently facing. I went to a little store and bought some small things, which included panda propaganda postcards and movie posters. My friend bought a pair of fake Ray Ban sunglasses for 69 RMB, which is the equivalent of approximately $10.38. What a deal!

This past weekend, I also went to the Silk Market and I ??? (didn’t realize) that the Silk Market was actually a huge shopping mall! It looked modernized, and it reminded me of the shopping malls back home near Chicago. The basement was full of small shoe stores that sold exactly the same thing, and the store owners hiked up the prices to around 600 RMB per fake pair of shoes. For instance, a pair of fake Yeezy Boosts was like 625 RMB. Converted into USD would be around $93.84: way too much for some fake Yeezy’s. I didn’t buy the Yeezy’s but I did get ripped off for some gray T-shirt. It’s okay though because I learned a good life lesson. When life hands you a 200 RMB T-shirt, don’t say 150 RMB, say 10 and you’ll be good. Well I’ll see you guys next week when I talk about my trip to Xi’an!

My plane ride to China best symbolizes what I expect my experience in China to be. I expected my United Airlines flight to be like any other long flight: watching movies on the mini screen in front of my seat. As I arrived at my window seat, I was in utter shock and horror because guess what? There was no mini-TV! Even better was that I couldn’t watch Zootopia like everyone else because my earphone cord didn’t work. The one thing I do when I’m stressed is sleep. So, naturally, I slept. When I woke up, there was an old Asian man who looked to be about 70 years old sleeping on my shoulder. I spazzed out and woke him up. He immediately started speaking Chinese to me, and I could only make out one of the things he said; “Are you Chinese?” “No, I’m American.” And that’s how the plane ride went from depressing to interesting. I barely reviewed Chinese before coming to China, and it definitely showed during our conversation. As he talked to me in only Chinese, I had my first taste of what China was going to be like (which involved using a lot of my Chinese-English dictionary). This is what some of the conversation looked like:

I had a huge headache the entire plane ride and felt like a 3 year old child trying to talk to Albert Einstein. But throughout my terrible Chinese, I learned that his son is a professor at Penn, a story about a man named Wu Song who killed a tiger, and (after holding up the flight attendant for several minutes) how to say red wine in Chinese. Long story short, my plane ride was my first taste of China: and it tasted weird but interesting.

I noticed a lot of things that I took for granted in the States. For example, TOILET PAPER. Public bathrooms here are not only holes in the ground, but they also don’t provide toilet paper, so we have to carry these little packs of tissues. Ice water is also huge. Restaurants here don’t provide us with ice water, so we have to drink hot water. But it’s ok. Everything is really cheap here and the people are really nice (except when they’re driving: it is terrifying).

NDiB is pretty challenging, in both the academic and cultural sense. We have a lot of work to do and I still don’t know how to say napkin in Chinese but it’s aight. My classmates and I suffer together, but we also have fun together hahaha. We went to a few “cultural excursions,” 比方说 (for example) we went to the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. The Great Wall was super sick. There were a lot of foreign people struggling to hike the Great Wall, but the view was incredible. 8/8 would highly recommend. Tiananmen Square is cool too, but there were a lot of people there, which made me feel pretty uncomfortable. There were a lot of Chinese people taking pictures of us because we were American (well mostly my caucasian friends), so we felt like celebrities.

In conclusion, even though there are some things that I don’t care for in Beijing (air quality, dense masses of people, and 90+ degree Fahrenheit weather), overall I really love it here. The people are chill, my classmates are fun, the teachers are awesome, and the city is bumping. See you guys next week!