I write random stuff

I think that's a yes

2012-10-24T02:21:00.001-07:00

Just some feedback about my application:

Thanks for your post. Generally, we enjoyed your post and thought it gave some great insights into the experience of studying at the School.

We did, however, feel that you might want to revisit the tone of the piece in places, especially towards the end. I think you make some valid points, but perhaps you could rephrase it a little. Particularly the reference to polygamy might upset some more sensitive people.

We’re having to work to expectations set out for us by wider College and the senior management team of the School to build the School’s brand. Generally we’re happy for our bloggers to write from their experience with a realistic view of their programmes. However, in the context of these expectations, I think you will need to watch out that you that your tone doesn’t unintentionally offend people and just be aware that your posts will be highly visible on the new Business School website and that not only prospective students will be reading them, but faculty and even potential employers visiting the School website will be able to come across them. It’s a great opportunity to increase your visibility to prospective employers and other contacts, but I’d just be careful that the humour of your posts doesn’t overstep a line and work against you.

With the above in mind, we’d be happy to have you as a blogger if you feel that your blogs could fit within these suggestions? As I said above, we enjoyed your post and think you have a lot to offer as a blogger.

Best wishes,

I guess I'll have to have two versions

London

2012-10-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

23 hours of flight time, four inflight movies, two Bloody Marys, and five questionably edible economy class meals is what it takes to get from Middle Earth to the Old Smoke. Me being excited about getting off the plane as we land on the Heathrow runway is probably an understatement. Not only was my back sore, but I was beginning to think that my seat had permanently contorted the shape of my backside.

I quickly make my way through customs and out of the airport. As I walked around like a headless chicken looking for anything that marginally resembled a shuttle or taxi, I had my first opportunity to soak in the atmosphere. It was a particularly overcast day, and it gave me the same grim feeling as I would get watching an episode of EastEnders.

Depending on your destination, expect to pay over sixty quid for a ride from Heathrow airport in a black cab/taxi. The more economical choice is paying around twenty five pounds for a shuttle with other passengers. Of course, for all you introverts and haters of people in general, this might not be an attractive option.

I make my way to the hotel in Paddington. I was planning on staying here for two days before moving into my studio room at GradPad Wood Lane Studios. Paddington being quite close to South Kensington would allow me to orient myself with the surrounding area and the Imperial campus itself. On arrival, they tell me that I have been upgraded to a ‘nicer’ room, free of charge. At this point, I was feeling quite special about myself, so I didn’t question it at all. What they didn’t mention though, was that this ‘nicer’ room was in Barbican, on the other side of the city.

With these initial hiccups aside though, my first impressions of Imperial College were great. Being an international student and arriving in London for the first time, I was practically a living manifestation of the ‘Forever Alone’ meme. Fortunately, Imperial provided a great international student orientation week, allowing students (many attending university for the first time) to assimilate themselves into student life, and to meet other wide-eyed freshers.
From these initial orientation lectures though, I can provide a word of warning for all you aspiring Casanovas out there.

Don’t go to Engineering school.

The stereotype of there being more males than females actually holds true. Ratio of three to one. I might even be being generous with that figure. However, us lucky men in MSc International Health Management don’t have this problem. In fact, in comparison to our deprived brethren in the neighbouring building, it could be mistaken that we are running an illegal polygamist sect.

Everything I wrote above was a trial for one of the Imperial College blogs, and depending on how things go, I may be writing a lot more of these, whether you like it or not. Regardless, it’s already been a few weeks since I arrived in this brilliant place called London and the experiences so far has been nothing short of amazing, so I may continue to keep writing anyway.

Darren, or whatever my previous alias was.

I'm back

2012-10-04T15:36:00.001-07:00

Will post something sometime soon. Got a bit to say, but I need to find the time *laughing to self which gradually subsides to a sigh*...

2012-02-06T06:16:00.000-08:00

Nov/Dec 2011

Not quite the same spectacular skyline as back home

Skiing at a ski field on the outskirts of Beijing was everything I expected it to be: man-made snow, long lines and waiting in the freezing cold. Yet I was still naïve enough to expect a little more from it. Don’t get me wrong, I had a good time but it was the culmination of “the little things” which made the whole experience frustrating. This was probably due to the fact that that I’ve only ever been skiing in NZ. The day started with an early bus trip to the ski field – now when I say ski field, I’m using this term very liberally in this particular case – As we approached the field I couldn’t stop giggling at the sight of it! The “mountain of snow” was actually a rather large hill with a few snow machines covering it white. The payment process was also absurd. You had to put down a deposit to get a recharge card. This card was then used to pay for ski/clothing hire, locker, food etc. However there were no signs to indicate how much everything cost. Countless times we found ourselves denied of ski gear because we didn’t have enough money on our cards. This resulted in one of us having to join the back of the line to put more money on the cards. So we didn’t get out onto the mountain until after lunch! I’ve probably scared you enough to deter you from skiing here but I just want you to have little expectations of the place so you can be pleasantly surprised when you do comeJ. In all honesty, we went when the snow was only covering half the mountain so I can’t give an accurate description about the quality of the skiing. A friendly local who I chatted with on the chairlift informed me that the best time around Christmas/after New Years. No matter where you ski, if you’re with good friends then it’s going to be a blast no matter how short the slopes are. There are a lot of opportunities to get big air. Our mate tried the half pipe which wasn’t fully covered in snow. Because of this fact, as he tried to go up the half pipe he slammed into the side like a brick wall. I actually fell over because I was laughing so hard. Most people go for a day – there are busses to take you there and back so it’s pretty convenient. We pretty much went through every route in three runs so it wasn’t worth staying for an extra day. We really wanted to spend the night there but we forgot our passports so we couldn’t get any hotel accommodation. If like skiing/snowboarding and find a few mates who are keen then definitely check it out!

This poor chappie in the centre of the pic is so exhausted he's leaning on the padding curled up in a ball sleeping.

Not your usual post

2011-12-15T09:58:00.000-08:00

My last post contained some dreadful words that I regret writing. I have since removed them.

For the past month, I've only thought of her as the girl who broke up with me.

I forgot about the amazing, beautiful person that she is, and all the things we experienced together.

"...no matter what happens..." These words still hold true.

I truly wish her all the happiness in the world, whether it be fulfilling her aspirations, or through the other joys of life.

im still here

2011-11-20T05:53:00.001-08:00

Hey Peeps.

Still alive. Just been busy. Busy being living it up in Beijing.

Well, not exactly. I have a lot of crap to say, more than a single blogpost should have, so I'll probably be doing a number of posts in the next few days rather than bore everyone with endless drivel. What was supposed to be a whole semester of trouble free ~~play~~ learning got a little complicated. Reason number one after the jump.

Yip. Decided to trade in my longboard for a pair of sweet as crutches. What it lacks in speed it more than makes up for in the increased level of sympathy it generates. I also get an awesome upper body workout at the same time so I will have a eight pack in no time.

Long story short; while balling with some peeps, I crossed over some poor fool and let him eat my dust. Baseline drive. Layup from the left. It was all pretty sweet. Until the landing. Some smart person(s) placed their ball(s) on the area under the hoop/backboard. Ended up busting my ankle and knee on the ball. Probably one of the most painful experiences in my life.

Managed to limp my way to the campus hospital. Possibly one of the worst visits to any health professional i have every experienced. It ranks with the time the doctor did a DRE on me when I was a kid when they had trouble diagnosing my minor stomach ailment. If you don't know what a DRE is, I'm not talking about phat G-funk beats...

Getting back to this visit, I waited for about an hour just to be told that they couldn't see me because they had to go home at 5.30pm and that I should go home and rest. OK, fair enough (not really), but what really got to me was when they refused to give me a pair of crutches because i didn't have my student ID. The next day, when I finally got to see the doctor, he didn't even examine me and just wrote a prescription for some patches and glucosamine. Didn't even tell me how long I should expect to be crippled or what was actually wrong with me until I put the words into his mouth. Based on what I, I mean he said, I have a moderate to severe sprain in my knee and ankle. I'm not entirely sure how much or what our student insurance covers, but my visits were underpar (other words come to mind).

At the time of writing, there has been great improvement and I've weaned myself off the crutches and can walk fairly normally albeit with a bit of a limp. No basketball or any form of running any time soon though, just to be safe. As far as I know, the chicks dig the injured guy look, as long as you tell them it's from basketball and not from something unattractive like gout..

removed

I apologise again for being unbelievably slack with this blog. As I said, stuff has happened. Will follow up this post soon. I would expand this post a bit more, but considering it has been about a month since I started typing this, I think it would be best if I just post what I have written so far.

ps: sorry about the spelling errors, but as usual, I can't be bothered checking.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2011-10-29T11:39:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, sorry for the infrequent posts of late. We have been exceptionally busy and I’ve been putting off writing because I didn’t have any blog worthy pictures for you all. But that’s not the case anymore, so lets get straight into it!

Beijing is without a doubt an amazing place. From the awe inspiring Forbidden City to the crumbled ruins of the Great Wall, you can really lose yourself in the atmosphere of these impressive sites (unless you get too bogged down by the sheer number of other tourists that are ruining your experience!). While it may take you three hours to get to the Great Wall, you don’t have to look far to spot some of China’s cruel ways of life.

Poor turtles in the middle :(

Pets in Beijing are a mystery. Apart from the caged variety (birds, fish, etc) I don’t see the how you can raise a dog with such little public areas available. It’s a rare sight when you see someone walking their tiny dog though the massive hoards of people. There are various pet carts around our area which house various cute animals for sale. Despite their inherent cuteness nothing can hide the fact that the are housed in incredibly tiny cages. Our friend nearly bought a little white rabbit with hopes of saving it but was convinced at the last minute that there was nothing much she could do to rescue it. You also see homeless people with really cute little puppies. I don’t know how they manage to feed them but I can only assume their lives are short lived. Although the homeless people that live at the entrance to our subway station have managed to raise their dogs for as long as I’ve been here.

Pet stores are not at all cute

We went to a Hallowen party last week. For a first timer (we don’t celebrate Halloween from where we’re from) I was pretty impressed at what I saw. The party was located in 798, the art district of Beijing, in a converted warehouse. The theme was “fetish” so it was pretty much open to anything. Some of the costumes were insanely good. Some excellent male zombie brides – can’t believe they pulled this off, the makeup was amazing; the Invisible Man, Harry Potter, Tron and this awesome pack of stealthy ninjas. Oh yea, and we were the ninjas. It was a lot of fun and I think my friend put it best: “I now understand why ninjas are so stealthy. If anyone sees one they immediately want to take their photo.” Every time we got drinks at the other end of the warehouse we would be constantly interrupted for photos.

But it wasn’t all easy going. The actual lead up to the party was a nightmare. We didn’t settle on a costume until the second to last day and that was after some much needed prodding from DJ. I think he had been doing some investigating and found out how hard out this party actually was. So once we finally settled on ninjas there was the lengthy process of finding the costumes. For a city that sells pretty much anything, costumes stores are non-existent! We tried numerous shopping malls and asked countless people but we always received the same response: a look of bewilderment when DJ showed them the ninja picture on his phone, smiling and laughing, and then a something along the lines of “I don’t know.” Luckily DJ had done some serious homework and located the Hong Qiao markets. A place where they sell fake watches, bags, scarves, electronics, toys, material, etc. We ended up with what we wanted but boy did we have to work for a decent price. Some of these ladies are incredibly sneaky. When we tried to bargain for these plastic swords we ended up paying a price that we would pay get back home. Total ripoff (relatively). DJ described her bargaining approach as using “cute tactics”. I was just annoyed by the fact that she swindled us when we had the perfect game plan. It was nearing closing time, we tell her we have to go soon, don’t have much money and since we are buying 5 give us what we want. That should count for something, right? Instead she used the closing time tactic on us and before you know it we are walking away feeling like we just got played like a couple of fools. I blame DJ for falling for the cute tactics…... We all did a good job putting the pieces together and a special shout out to DJ for cutting most of the fabric and assembling the various components when the rest of us had other commitments.

So I heard winter in Beijing can get pretty cold…..well, I heard correctly! Within the span of 2 weeks the number of layers I am wearing has tripled. At the start of the month I was wearing just a t-shirt and I would still sweat profusely. Now it’s nearing November and I’m busting out the puffer jacket (down jacket) and hat. The scary part is that it hasn’t even snowed yet and the weather forecasters are predicting 2-4 heavy periods of snow this winter. A classmate who has lived in Beijing for a couple of years warned me of the wind. Apparently it gets so icy, you can actually snap you own hair in two (This sounds kind of cool but really bad if it’s true – I’ll update you guys if it is so). So please spare a thought for us if you are enjoying warm sunshine as you read this :(

So apart from class, studying, meeting up with language partners and tutoring English me and DJ are hanging with our friends. One thing that we have all been enjoying together is rekindling our childish love of video game arcades. One game in particular always keeps us coming back for more – Taiko no Tatsujin. It’s the Japanese drumming game that lets you take out all your frustrations to the beat of your favourite J-Pop songs. It’s especially rewarding if you are an anime fan like me and find music from Cowboy Bebop, Naruto, Bleach etc. I also enjoy the fighting games over here. In Beijing they have Tekken 6, Super Street Fighter IV, King of Fighters all lined up in a row. Each player has their own screen and fighting pad and they play opposite their opponents who have the exact same set up. I didn’t get a photo of this but I’ll try my best to describe this funny memory with the help of my wonderful illustration below.

I mistakenly challenged DJ to Tekken 6 (should have done SSFIV because I’m much better at that) because he destroyed me multiple times and took all my coins. Afterwards this 50 year old man motioned to me to get out of the chair so that he could challenge DJ. He picked Law (the Bruce Lee char) and started to tear DJ a new a-hole. I’m exaggerating a little, DJ did manage to win a few rounds, but he lost all the games. Back home arcades are hangouts for little kids (tweeners) and emo kids. But over here it’s full of all sorts. You could walk in at 3pm at find 50 year olds going at it at SSFIV – and they’re really good too.

Ok, that seems to be all I can think of for now. We’ll try to update this sooner than last time so come back soon!

willynilly aka Twiggy Ninja DJ checking fb before he gets his groove on

Bourbon and flu don't mix

2011-10-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

Beijing 101

1. Public urination brings bad karma.
2. Soju and Bourbon don't mix.
3. Flu and Bourbon don't mix.
4. Don't drink and sprint if you don't want to make a mess.

All hypothetical.

That is all.

In Piri I Trust

2011-10-10T23:24:00.000-07:00

The above picture of Piri Weepu has been circling Facebook for the past two days. It pretty much sums up the first half of the All Blacks vs. Argentina quarterfinal that was played on Sunday. Piri was essentially a one man team with his accurate kicking, single-handedly (or single-footedly?) keeping us on the scoreboard for most of the game. He's a HALFBACK, to boot. See what I did there? For the uniformed, the 2011 Rugby World Cup is currently being held in New Zealand, my home country. Rugby is a contact sport played with an oval shaped ball and is considered a national religion of sorts. Kind of like what Star Craft 2 is to South Korea, but more extreme. In fact, it is so important to our country that whether we win or not will affect the next government election, the level of domestic violence (no jokes, as the 2007 World Cup exit revealed), whether our economy is totally fucked or just a little fucked, etc, etc. We are a small country, but we are very passionate about this sport, but evident by the strength of our national team, the All Blacks. Unfortunately, despite traditionally being the best team in the world year in and year out, it doesn't translate into World Cup championships. In fact, the last time we won the cup was back in 1987, during the inaugural competition.

The Argentinians certainly played a physical game, but there's no denying our boys in Black were pretty average in comparison to their usual high standards. The final scoreline of 33-10 is not wholly representative of how close the game was. It took us approximately three quarters of the game to cross the tryline for the first of our two tries (a try is the equivalent of a touchdown), having relied on Piri's penalty kicking prior to that. The Australians, whom won their respective game against South Africa, will be a different type of ballgame, but we will have to step up a notch, nevertheless.

In other results; As I mentioned, Australia won against a tough South African side. Some say that the South Africans deserved the win, but the number of tackles Australia made to stop their opposition was amazing. They will no doubt be sore during the course of the week in the buildup to the semifinal with the All Blacks. Wales beat a a favoured Irish team and France pulled some more playoff magic against the English. The fans whom we watched the France England game with at The Den in Sunlitun were a passionate bunch. Plenty of friendly jabbing, chanting and singing. I decided to support the French, as I tend to like the underdog. "Allez les bleus! Allez les bleus!" Good times.

Lao Wais, a bar in Wudaokao, down the road from BLCU blatantly advertised on a blackboard outside the bar that all RWC games will be shown live. Since it's in Wudaokao, we thought it would be better than making several trips to Sunlitun, especially for less important games. Turns out you can't trust American bar owners who know shit about rugby and only wanted to attract more patrons...they couldn't even find the fucking channel. Ended up missing the whole Wales Ireland game. I would say that I will never go back there again, but our friend has a birthday party there this weekend.

This blog post is my achievement for the day. Coughed all night and feel like shit, so i skipped my classes for the day.... Going to a different section of the Great Wall tomorrow with my fellow tongxue, so hopefully I feel a bit better.... damn you Yanjing beer.

i swear i saw a UFO on the Great Wall..

2011-10-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

Hey peeps

Sorry about the delay. Been pretty busy doing various things. When I do get some free time, it's usually filled in by lengthy Star Craft 2 sessions. Need to get out of Bronze League one day. I've had this game for over a year now and I still can't crack into Silver, let alone Gold, Platinum, Diamond or Masters. I'd say Grandmasters is a little out of my reach. I'm a fairly realistic person.

But yes, BLCU has been quite eventful during the past couple of weeks. I am definitely enjoying my time here so far. No classes in the afternoon, meeting people from around the world, seeing interesting places, playing pickup basketball whenever I want. Bloody brilliant.

Steve and I have been very good lately in regards to the toilet. No blockages recently. Edit: Scrap that. He has literally just informed me that the toilet is blocked again. It's probably a bit too late to knock on our neighbour's door to borrow their plunger....I swear we've used that thing at least 5 times... (Update: I'm forbidden from checking out the damage. I suppose I'll just have to hold it in until the morning..). Also, despite a few bites here and there, our mosquito problem seems to be easing up. Bombing the place with Raid tends to have that effect. Since I've been here, I've been bitten no less than thirteen times, with a good half being on my face >.<. Apparently they come up the drains at night, which makes me wonder what kind of nice diseases they potentially carry. I'm usually one of those nice people who prefers to gently pick up insects and toss them out the window so they can live out their minuscule lives, but mosquitoes aren't exactly a beautiful sight to behold..

Finally paid my accommodation fee a few days ago. They have a really shit payment system here. Half the time they don't know where the documents are. I swear the dude who took my money quoted a different price than the one written on my invoice, hoping I wouldn't read the invoice because he only returned the difference when i questioned him about the discrepancy. You really can't trust some people here. Steve had even more trouble. Despite our deposits having been done through the same agency at the same time, the people over here just couldn't locate his receipt. Took him an extra 2 to 3 weeks to GIVE THEM money because apparently they don't have a record of us making a deposit. What a load of shit.

Speaking of not trusting people, what would you do if you got your bike stolen outside your dormitory? Report it to the staff? Report it to the local security/police? In all honesty, you would probably accomplish jack shit and would probably have to buy a new bike. But wait, why buy a new bike when you can just take one? I mean, there's sooooo many. Surely no one would miss just one little shitty bike? In fact, how about I leave this "borrowed" bike somewhere random after I've finished with it at a location where the original owner will never find it and just take someone else's bike the next time i need to go somewhere? They're pieces of crap anyway! >_<. Sounds pretty absurd, right? Well our friend decided to do just that. Yes, the bike is a piece of shit, but I don't think that our friend grasps the concept that some less fortunate people may be dependenton this piece of shit and buying one is a lot harder for them than for more fortunate people like us. We were under the assumption that the bikes had been returned, so we initially thought it was a tad bit funny, until we walked past the place and realised that the bike was still sitting there. We would return it, but getting caught red handed with a stolen bike doesn't really appeal to me.

Currently teaching a six year old kid how to speak English. His name's Michael. Cool little dude. He understands most of what I say, but getting him to reply back to me with more than one word responses is a bit difficult. I thought I was very clever by downloading some interactive Dr Seuss books onto my phone for him to read. Unfortunately, he seemed more interested in playing poker on his father's IPhone and listening to Chinese audio stories about cute little deer... I know he's a kid, but a cat in a hat smashes a Chinese Bambi clone any day.

Nice view from the Wall.

We're currently on the tail end of the "Golden Week" holidays. Although we haven't exactly made the most of it by going on a week-long trip to some exotic or isolated region of China (or Mongolia, as some of my fellow students have done), we did embark on a two day tramp/camping trip to an isolated area of the Great Wall. The specific area that we went to is called 箭扣(Jiankou). According to Wiki "This section is a photographic hotspot due to its unique style, steep mountains and beautiful scenery". From my two days of climbing and hiking, I would say that this is a very good description, but only being there can one fully appreciate how freaking cool the place is. Being able to see stars at night after a month of smog and bright lights is orgasmic in itself. Wiki also describes "This section of the Great Wall of China has fallen into disrepair and this, along with its location along a mountain ridge bordered by jagged cliffs and steep drop-offs, makes the Jiankou segment of the Great Wall of China potentially dangerous to climb". Lets just say I was wetting my pants at times. Not quite literally, but I probably came close, but man, what a thrill it was. I'd like to think that the gym membership investment helped with all the climbing, because some sections were downright difficult. .

Apparently hiking in the Jiankou area is illegal. Good for us, because that means we can have the Wall to ourselves :). In reality, there were a few crazy locals who looked like they were going for a Sunday morning stroll in the local park. There was even a whole extended family group up there at one point. Maybe it's just me, but my idea of a family outing does not include premature death or debilitating injury after a slight misstep or after grabbing onto a supposedly stable rock. As for staying the night on the wall, not many were as crazy as us though, with the acception of a few other foreigners, evident by their annoying screams and calls into the valley in search of an elusive echo.

We hiked that (plus more). Just sayin'.

After determining that bunking up inside the watchtower would probably be unadviseable due to falling debris and spiders (not that we could sleep in there anyway, considering we smoked the place out with our fire..), we decided to sleep under the stars. Man...that was awesome. In the span of about ten minutes, I saw more shooting stars and satellites then I have in my whole life altogether. We also spotted a strange object that was brighter than anything else and seemed to move in different directions in a jerky movement every so often. Kind of freaked me out. I'd place a pretty big wager that it was more than just a star. One of our friends, Nick, had recently bought a laser pointer and someone suggested that he point it at the object. I couldn't help but think that we'd also get a laser shot at us, except that this laser would make a "PEOW!" noise and incinerate us to dust.

Our home.

Our amazing fire.

Sometime during the night, we started hearing a lot of shouting. Nick thought it would be a good idea to shine his laser at the nearby mountain. As soon as he did so, several flashlights beamed on the same area. At first, we thought it was just some trampers messing around. However, as the night went on, we started to suspect something more serious. They knew where we were, so we couldn't just keep quiet and hope for the best. If this large group of men were police, we could possibly bribe them and avoid getting arrested. However, what the fuck do we do if they were thieves or hooligans? If you bribe them, they'd happily take that and everything else you have. Maybe worse. We decided to stay quiet and hope that they would walk in a different direction, but the voices were getting louder and they were without a doubt heading our way. We may have pissed our pants climbing things, but we were shitting our pants now. This was a whole new level. Do we run? What weapons besides our shoes did we have? The thought of sacrificing Steve assuming that they could be cannibals did cross my mind (albeit not much meat on him). "We fooooooooouuunnnd yooooooooooooooooooouuu!" shouted someone inside the now dimly-lit watchtower. If my heart ever skipped a beat, it probably would have been at that instance. Damn shitty reception on the Great Wall! Can't even tell anyone that I'm going to get violated by dirty Chinamen......As the men came upon us, Nick manages a "ah..Ni Hao...?" We adjusted to the bright flashlights and made out several men clad in either camo green or orange uniforms. These guys didn't look like thieves or paedophiles. In fact, they looked pretty cool and friendly. Some even spoke English. They explained that they were on their way to the other side of the mountain to rescue a girl who had injured herself. They didn't even care that we were sleeping on the wall. We had a friendly exchange with these men and they proceeded to climb on in the dark. They made easy work of any obstacle. Holy moly they were machines. One humourously shouted back "I LOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUU, WE ARE CHINESE FIREMEN!!!". I couldn't help but profess my love back, because these guys were just so awesome. In the end, we didn't get robbed, arrested, killed or molested, but instead, we got to witness real heroes going about their duties. Now that shit is cool. Pity we didn't get a photo, but at that point, we were jsut happy to be alive.

The morning after. My hood looks like a headscarf/turbin

The rest of the night went fairly smoothly. I was sleeping on a slant though, so I woke up no less than ten times to readjust myself, and I'm pretty sure I kicked Nick in the head. There were some f-ed up noises coming from the bush around dawn. Those were some strange sounding beasts....I was pretty freaked out about the bats, but these new animals sounded like something from a horror movie. However, despite all the scary shit that happened, I wouldn't change it in anyway. The whole experience was amazing, and although it's technically illegal, I'd recommend hiking around this area to anyone, assuming you can walk and climb in difficult terrain. My last visit to the Great Wall was in a much more commercialised and developed area which just didn't have the same spirit to it. I've done alot of travelling in China, especailly during my last visit, and I can honestly say this is one of the best things I've done.

One more plank for the road.

RIP Steve Jobs

I should have gotten off at Crackton...

2011-09-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the first time I took the bus! I was confident I could work out where to go but somehow I managed to get lost for the hundredth time this trip. I was under the belief that the bus was heading to the subway station however I realised something was wrong when we were pulling into the bus depot instead. The driver didn't realise I was still there until I tried to sneak my way over the closed gate guarding the bus door. He spluttered something to me in Chinese but I couldn't understand it so I just quickly got out of there. Fortunately most people here are willing to help you. My first attempt at asking for directions in chinese played out exactly like a scene from the game Shenmue II. For those of you who have played this game, the main character can ask for directions to anyone that crosses his path. On most occassions they lead you to your destination. So after he led me to the subway station I shook his hand and thanked him - its that easy guys :)

Can't remember if DJ mentioned these mosquitoes at night but they are vicious. D got plenty on juicy wounds on his face and two nights ago I got bitten on the hand. I had a pretty bad reaction to it and a rash started to appear which slowly crawled up my arm. It very nearly reached my shoulder :( I went to the BLCU hospital the following day and they put some smelly ointment on it. The swelling seems to have reduced so it should be ok now. The BLCU hosptial is very well run. The info desk helped me translate with the doctor and it only cost 2 RMB.

You can't see it very well but it looked like a red swollen vine crawling all the way up my armpit

On the bright side, D and I found decent tasting ice creams. In general, Chinese ice cream suuuucks! It always tastes like it has melted then refrozen, the texture of the cone always tastes like paper and there is hardly any dairy in the ice cream. Magnums here are at a pricy 5 RMB a pop and they look a lot smaller than the ones back home lololol. I've also noticed that the roles are reversed when we are eating. Back home, D is the one usually struggling to finishing the meals we put on the table for him. But for some strange reason he is a human waste disposal in China. I on the other hand can never seem to finish my meals and at times the food doesn't agree with my stomach. Check out the hot pot meal we had tonight. I tried man, but D bested me yet again....it was pitiful. I will not leave this country until I have conquered this food!

D convinced me to eat the cube of duck blood. I was gullible enough to believe that it was a different type of tofu......

I like turtles

2011-09-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

Hello! It's been over a week since I last posted. I apologise for this but since class started I've had very few opportunities to sit down and write a post. Everything in Beijing runs at a fast pace: the service at the student dining hall, the subway, the mini scooters and my mandarin course. I've nearly had a weeks worth of classes at BLCU and there is already a ton of stuff that has been unloaded onto our desks. 4 volumes of reading comprehension, listening and conversation textbooks; plus extra vocab books of words that we should know. I find the reading comprehension fine at the moment, having done chinese at high school, but its the listening and conversation classes that really prove their worth. Unlike high school, all classes are taught in mandarin and there are plenty of opportunities for the teachers to pick you out and have mock conversations with. These conversations are actually quite useful and I have used them when trying to talk to the local chinese here.

Local people at BLCU are much more friendlier than back home. I don't know if its just me or my interesting accent, or that I come from a far away place but I seem to be able to socialise with local chinese just fine despite my lack of communication skills. Its always funny when trying to explain what rugby is and that our nation has pretty much come to a halt to host the World Cup. DJ and I couldn't be bothered catching the subway in order to watch NZ v Japan so we found a site that was showing a live stream. With 500ml cans of Asahi as our beverage of choice (4 yuan each at the local store) we invited our Japanese neighbour over and had a great time laughing at every All Blacks try. I regret not being able to enjoy the atmosphere of the World Cup but this is the best we can do with what we have got. Definately looking forward to the latter rounds of the tournament.

DJ and I joined the gym. Considering all we do is eat, sleep and attend class we thought it would be a good idea (actually we do walk a lot). Gym membership for a sememster is around 800RMB, extremely cheap when compared to NZ standards - and no, don't expect a buff version of me when I return. DJ is the one doing the heavy lifting and its pretty hilarious watching him stuggle to put his shirt on everyday. For those who know Deej, imagine him saying "ahh f*** my arms, man!" in that overly exaggerated voice that everyone mocks him with. One funny moment occured after we signed up for the gym. Two personal trainers came along, took us aside and tried to convince us that we needed them for our future workouts. These guys were unnaturally big, narcissistic individuals who were not going to take no for an answer. I don't know how Darren wriggled out of his but I sort of laughed explaining how I would using the cardio machines most of the time. I think this insulted him a bit which led to him pulling out his planner and trying to pencil me in for a day and time. 20 consultations with this guy was worth 1000's of RMB so there was no way I was signing up for something I wasn't going to do. We both just slowly walked to the door giving any excuse we could come up with. So after one session at the gym, DJ can't hold his arms horizontally for more than a second without me cracking up. Good start!

DJ half obliging to taking a photo of him carrying me

We went to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City in the weekend. It was an amazing site and we could have spent all day there. I was blown away by the amount of detail that was put into each building. We went on an unusually hot sunny day which was good overall. The downside was that there were so many people (I'm told that its always packed) so everytime we ventured deeper into the heart of the City our patience for walking in the sun and wading through people was wearing thin. This is the most tourist-y place I've visited in Beijing so far and you could tell. More white people, more people trying to hassle you for souvenirs and these annoying lurchers who want your empty water bottles as soon as you finish it. Shoutout to DJ who I managed to carry me up a staircase inside the Forbidden City (after much convincing).

Me after exploring the Forbidden City

DJ celebrating another AB try and talking smack to our Jap friend

Its pretty late now, so I better get some sleep before the long week ahead.

climbing the wall....

2011-09-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

This whole Chinese firewall thing is getting to my nerves. Thought we had it under control with our little Freegate VPN programme. That didn't last long. Those Chinese censors are a bunch of persistent fuckers, I tell you. Not only do they not want me to share my experiences on this blog, but more importantly, how can I feel good about myself if I can't check the number of likes on my Facebook status update(s) several times a day? Took us a while to find a decent paid VPN service to replace Freegate, because China has blocked the majority of VPN websites too. So far so good with this one, though. Hope it lasts.

I've been in China for a good 6 days now. Caught a flight from Vancouver to Guangzhou for a little stopover on route to Beijing. China Southern airlines has a shockingly bad entertainment system (i.e. it doesn't work), but the stewardesses were easy on the eye. The last time I flew on a plane with good looking flight attendants was back when I was prepubescent. Cathay Pacific, I believe it was. Continuing with the theme of eye candy, I ended up getting frisked at customs by this pretty girl. I must say, she was rather thorough. I was too tired to even care, and I bet she enjoyed it, considering she was smiling the majority of the time. Funny thing is though, I'm 100% certain I had no metal items in my posession.

Finally arrived in Beijing at around 11.pm. All I wanted was to get my luggage quickly and jump into the next taxi. One by one each person left with their possessions, until I was the only one left. It took me a while to realise that I was in a awkward situation. According to the luggage reception desk, my luggage was still in Guangzhou. In hindsight, it does make sense that I would need to retrieve my check-in luggage at an international airport upon arrival before boarding a domestic flight, but the broad in Vancouver assured me that I was checked in all the way through to Beijing. Ended up having to return to the airport the next day.

I won't get into too much detail about our room here at BLCU, but we live in student dormitory 4 on the second floor. Dorm 4 is one of the international student dorms. Ironically, I met more Americans on my first day here than during my whole San Fran/New York trip. Our room has a funny, musky smell. No doubt it's the pipes and drainage, but it's definitely not as bad as what others have claimed (edit: OK, maybe I was wrong. I think someone next door ate a carcass or something. Having trouble breathing). What I didn't expect was how easily the toilets get blocked. At the time of writing, the current tally for blocking the the toilet stands at Rogers with 5 times, and me with a slightly lower number of 1 (I still think it was a carry-on from the other tenant *ahem*). Rogers initially didn't understand the concept of having to put any toilet paper in the rubbish bin, rather down the bowl (who would?), and as a result, he had to get the maintenance/ janitor dude to come unblock the toilet for him. Twice. By the third or fourth time the thing blocked, we had learned how to use a plunger (shout out to our neighbour for lending us his), but the receptionist(s) was already assuming the toilet was blocked whenever Rogers approached the reception desk. On a related note, be wary of spicy, Szechuan food when it's your first time in China.

On Thursday, we had to sit a placement test to allow class allocation for each student. My results could be described as "high level of speaking/ conversational skills, shittier level of reading and writing skills". I was happy with my final placement as I probably would ahve been rolled in a higher level class. Skill levels range from classes A to F (F being the highest), with several levels in each letter group. I'm not going to lie, I'm closer to the A end on the spectrum, having been placed in high B class. However, I'm definitely learning more difficult content than "yi, er, san, si"...

We hit a expat bar called Tim's Texas Bar-BQ to watch the All Blacks vs. Tonga game. For the unacquainted, the All Blacks are the New Zealand national rugby team who are competing at the 2011 Rugby World Cup which happens to be in New Zealand this time round. It only took us two and a half hours to commute from BLCU to our destination. Someone suggested that a taxi would be quicker than taking 3 trains. Made sense at the time. However, the fact that it took us nearly half an hour to wave down a taxi in the first place should have given us a massive hint framed in neon lights that what we were doing was stupid. We completely forgot that it happened to be the weekend of China's mid-autumn festival. This translates to a shit load of cars on the road. We were literally moving at one block every 5-10 minutes at one point. Luckily for us, the broadcast at Tim's was delayed by half an hour, so we managed to catch half of the second half. Sadly, this was apparently the boring portion of the game, as I later discovered on the sports news online. Beer wasn't exactly cheap at this place either, with a Tiger costing around 30RMB, which is probably what we would pay back home at a bar. Overall, though, we had a good time. Especially when we got our hands on a endless supply of Yanjing beer....

Food is comparatively cheap over here, but prices do vary. In our student cafeteria, a meal costs on average around 8-10RMB, which is nothing when you consider that you are essentially paying $2NZ for something that would cost $10 back home. Then we have your 500RMB roast duck dinners. The place we went to, Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant (or something) is highly recommended in Steve's travel guide. Since Beijing Roast Duck is a must eat while in Beijing, we decided to give this place a try. The wait time to be seated was around half an hour and getting the food was another half an hour, but it was good duck, I must say. Just to clarify, the duck itself didn't cost 500RMB, we did order other stuff. Again, this is cheap as chips (not literally) considering the type of meal we got, but I don't intend on spending the equivalent of $100NZ on every meal. Looking forward to the places that the locals prefer, where the duck is apparently even better.

I wonder what they do with the rest of the duck

Will post again soon. Glad we got this internet issue sorted out.

DJ

PS: will also try to post stuff about NY/Canada at a later date....

2011-09-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

大家好！ Today will be my first of many posts contributing to DJ’s BLCU blog. We are both taking this adventure together and hope to share some insight and all the good times we have in Beijing to you guysJ. I arrived first so I thought it would be appropriate to share my first experiences of BLCU before DJ. I was slightly anxious about arriving first as I would have to find my way to the university and secure our accommodation alone. My mandarin is at an elementary level which meant I could not rely on my conversation skills alone to get me there. Fortunately I know someone who is currently living over here and he was kind enough to give me the instructions. After taking 3 trains (since I did not trust the taxi drivers) I ended up in Wudakou, the district where BLCU is located. It was a bloody hot and humid morning and I was wearing jeans, a thermal and a hoodie…..yes, the plane trip was cold alright?! I ended up walking around in circles for about 30 minutes trying to ask various people where BLCU was. No one was helpful so I succumbed to the toothless grin of a dirty looking taxi driver. He was actually very nice about it all and led me straight to BLCU for 10RMB. China can be genuine at times! My misfortune did not end there however. I arrived at the international office and found out my name was not on the list of students who had reserved a room at one of the dorms. I slightly panicked and got a hold of Deej. His mum rang the office and she put him in his place. Shot DJ’s mum!

The campus is massive. Besides the many dorms its has basketball courts (incl one self enclosed rubber court), tennis courts, volleyball, table tennis, a gym, football field, track and field, dozens of convenience stalls, restaurants, cafés and a 3 storey dining hall – as well as classrooms, library etc.

Hard day of walking around - we end up in our beds at 8.00pm lol

Our room is small, so small that our suitcases practically touch. I think it’ll be fine provided that my roommate doesn’t spill his beloved pistachios on my half of the room….We had our entrance exam today (I think it was called SEC but can’t be sure now). We both sat the level 2 test (ppl who know between 100 and 1000 characters). Provided we don’t end up switching classes DJ is in class B12 and I am in A11. The higher the letter and number the more advanced your class is. After the test we did a little exploring and saw some new places outside Wudakou. We ended up in a huge shopping mall and we had some sort of spicy steamboat for lunch but it was fried in a big bowl – not steamed. The chillies were so hot not even my spicy pallet could handle those things. I’m still feeling the side effects…

I’ll leave some of the quirkier stuff for DJ. I’m sure he will take pleasure in writing about our toilet situation . But stay tuned because we will be posting about all sorts including different challenges that have been set for each other. Some of them are gonna be hilarious J

Capt. America (post transformation ofc)

t-rex diiiiiiiied peow peow

2011-09-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a very good week in Vancouver. I've explored a decent chunk of the place. At times, though, I couldn't tell the difference between here and Hong Kong. The number of asian people, predominantly Chinese, is pretty insane. This is especially so in the Richmond region. Auckland doesn't compare. The transition to Beijing will be quite smooth

But anyway, I'll post more about New York and Canada soon. What I really wanted to show you was a picture of my cousin's two kids. omg they are so ~~fluffy~~ cute i could die. Ayden is six and Tristan is three. Smart kids.

Ayden

Tristan

Next time I post will most likely be in Beijing. Hopefully there are no issues with the internet there.

D

ny continued

2011-09-02T03:24:00.000-07:00

The skyline has undoubtedly changed since then, and there were no tourists gawking from the base of the statue,but immigrants of yesteryear would have seen a very similar sight when they first reached the shores of their new home. That is, if you weren't part of the two or so percent that were turned back. Gutted much?

If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again.

Easier said than done when you have traveled hundreds or thousands of kilometers by sea.

The little cruise around the Statue of Liberty and our subsequent visit to Ellis Island was quite interesting, to say the least. It really gave us a good insight into why people made such long journeys for this opportunity, as well as the difficult process that was involved. After all, Ellis Island was the main gateway into the country for millions of people. Not wanting to miss the ferry back to Manhattan, our visit was fairly brief as a result, but we managed to take in all the important parts (I think). I'm sure the movie "Island of Hope-Island of Tears" that we attended would have been a great watch, but half an hour of napping in a dark room was more appealing to me. I'm sure it's available on Youtube anyway.

The hall at Ellis Island where
immigrants were processed.

Having accomplished another "must-do" New York attraction(s), we made our way back to Manhattan. Do you like BBQ meats? Unless you're vegetarian (Respect. I can't do that shit), or rely on photosynthesis, I assume that you do. Well, my mate Jono suggested this place called Hill Country on his list of must dine places. He highly rated their ribs. In fact, he claimed they were the best ribs he has ever eaten. Bold claim.

Turns out Monday was all you can eat night. $25US each person.How it works is that each "batch" consists of 4 types of meat (ribs, roast pork, roast chicken, whatever else it was), 2 sides, etc, and when you finish one batch, you request another one. I set a goal of at least six rounds of meat and sides (I was starving). Only managed two and a half measly portions. Regardless of how obese everyone else was in the restaurant, I still don't get how one person can stuff themselves in a single sitting the equivalent amount of food that could feed a whole Ethiopian village for months. I think we were close to throwing up at one point. The constant laughter over our weakness didn't help our cause. The collage of photos below is a rough photographic timeline of my progress over the evening.


Slow death

Despite nearly splitting my stomach, I'm sure this was one of the most fun meals I've had in New York. My girlfriend wasn't stupid enough to gorge herself to the brink of death, but I was willing to self-mutilate my body to provide us with a few laughs. Next time I'll consider sticking a finger down my throat after each plate.

i'm alive yay

2011-08-31T02:30:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I haven't ditched this blog. Just been occupied. And jet lagged. In Vancouver right now, which means that I survived dirty old Irene. What a bitch she was, causing all that trouble. In all honesty, Irene didn't really affect us, thank Bob, but all the news coverage definitely got us worried about whether we would be able to fly on Saturday morning. Airlines were cancelling several of their scheduled flights on the east coast. In some cases, all were canned. Although New York is quite far up north, Irene was expected to pay us a visit in a big way. Even public transport was ordered to stop by the afternoon to prevent any damage. We were very fortunate because our 11.30am flight to Minnesota scraped in before all the flights were grounded. Sad, though, to hear about the damage and loss of life it has caused in other states,as well as neighboring countries. The cost of this event will be ranked in the top 10 costliest disasters in US history according to reports. Because most of the damage was caused by flooding and the wind itself, much of it may not be covered by insurance as flood damage is not listed in many policies. It seems so surreal (if that's an appropriate word for this situation) that we were only there a few days ago, when everything seemed fine and all of a sudden, things became chaotic. Although NY ended up avoiding the full brunt of Irene, extensive damage was done, nevertheless. Oh well, lucky us.

Unassuming little place on a quiet little
street in Chinatown.......

....but the dumplings were pretty fucking tasty.

Some catching up to do....where do I start.....did I mention that food is awesome in New York? As I've said before, food in NY is not all about hotdogs and pizza. Not to say that I haven't eaten copious amounts of the aforementioned food items during my time here, but I most definitely had enough space in my GI tract for other yummies.

When looking at places where good food is available, you can't go wrong with Chinatown. The place has a more distinct scent separate from the other parts of Manhattan. It's like HK, with its occasional whiff of sewerage (still much better than China...that place smells like you're riding Splash Mountain, except the log you're riding is a different type of log, and the water is yellow). Ah...those Chinese and their funny smelling ways,... We first went to this place called Prosperity Dumpling, where they made, er, dumplings.We could have ordered other stuff other than dumplings, but that would be likened to the idiot who orders steak at a seafood restaurant.It was something stupid like 5 dumplings for a dollar. My grandma makes some pretty phat gaozhis (and she doesn't charge me) but these were pretty awesome too. The place is a hole in a wall, seats four people max, but the atmosphere is not the reason it's famous.

Essentials

I wonder what the Chinese
translate to. I don't think
it's Golden Unicorn.

Afterwards, we got some dim sum at Golden Unicorn. LMAO. Didn't know unicorns figured into Chinese mythology. If I'm not mistaken, that thing on the left is not even a unicorn. That thing has wings, fool! Mythological animal identity crisis aside, the dim sum was choice. Was pretty full by the end of it, evident by the fact that I walked into the kitchen, thinking it was the exit.

Scroll down for other yummies.

Lost your appetite? Was pleasantly surprised that the NY subway wasn't as bad as its reputation made it out to be...until we nearly stepped on this(I'm sure one of us stepped on that trail of questionable liquid though...please be Gatorade). Prior beliefs dashed in an instant. OK truth be told, I knew the subway is pretty filthy at times. That's to be expected in a big city with a old system like this one, but couldn't the guy have just stepped into Mcdonalds or some other public toilet? Did he REALLY need to lay a cable right there and then that badly? Actually, that pile doesn't look like a cable at all....it's just a saying I learned during my tenure in good old, classy Invercargill.

After our brief visit to Chinatown, we made our way to the Financial Center. We've already been to this area, as detailed by a previous post, but we didn't have the opportunity to explore it more thoroughly. To be honest, there wasn't too much. Architecture is impressive, but most of the action is inside, where we can't go in, especially on Wall Street.


I don't even remember what this building was. Could someone enlighten me?

The statue of the bull is a representation of a market where a trend of
high.......OK yeah it's a picture of me licking its, er, udders.

To be continued tomorrow.

D

quick post

2011-08-26T00:19:00.000-07:00

Soz but this will be a brief post. Just got excited about this one thing. Got plenty of time to catch up when I'm in Canada since I probably won't be too busy once I'm there. This hurricane coming up the east coast issue is a bit of a worry though.

Went around Soho today for a quick look. For those unacquainted, Soho (south of Houston, dunno what Houston is referring to) is a trendy neighbourhood that is lined with several cafes, shops and chic designer boutiques. In other words, it's a girl's paradise and I'm just there for the ride.

One of the (several) clothing stores we visited happened to be just opening. They hadn't even finished doing up the place. In a sense, we made history because my girlfriend was literally the first customer. Was an interesting experience to boot. The big African man who assisted her essentially manhandled her while suggesting different looks. The look on her face was priceless. In some situations, this would probably be inappropriate. I'm 99% sure he was gay, though, so that's A.O.K in my book.

So yeah..most of the afternoon consisted of a systematic approach on my part, where I would enter a clothing/shoe store, seek the closest seat (or any available surface), then proceed to sleep until it was time to repeat the process again. Soho is nice, don't take it the wrong way, but I just wasn't expecting to find anything that would interest me. However, to my surprise, we happened to walk by the Ice Cream Store by chance. Despite the name, they don't actually sell desserts. My girlfriend confirmed this when she asked the security guard whether she could buy ice cream LMAO. This place is actually the brainchild apparel store conceived by Pharrell Williams of Neptunes fame. I'm a big fan of his music and have checked out his clothing lines Ice Cream and Billionaire Boys Club on the internet. Pretty neat threads and kicks, but a tad on the expensive but side. It's essentially an American version of BAPE, especially the Ice Cream line.

The ground floor. The place actually smelt like ice cream.

It was my lucky day. My girlfriend insisted on getting me a pair of orange BBC Nothings as a present *thanks, babe!!!*. I'm not really one to seek out 'exclusive' products, but I gotta admit that these blow my regular Air Force 1's out of the water. Orange is probably not the first choice colour for most people, but I really liked them so don't be hating. The End.

D

Getting my orange on.

Pizza is yum

2011-08-25T02:21:00.000-07:00

*sorry peeps. been too occupied and exhausted over the past few days to update. hopefully i recall most of the good stuff*

People who wait in a block-long line outside a Abercrombie and Fitch store (as I observed on 5th Avenue)for must be going inside to gawk at the shirtless male models or even to get high on the excessive perfume sprayed around the store, because those threads are just not worth waiting an hour plus over. Then again, some people really do want to look like preppy jerk-offs...

The people in front comprised of about 25% of the whole line
waiting for the place to open.

The doorman is really good at making people disappearing....
.....into Grimaldis! HAHAHA. G

However, some establishments really do deserve this sort of ludacris dedication. This includes Grimaldis Pizzeria, a little, understated joint located under the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side of the East River. It is not only decent, but it's known to be one of the best, if not THE best pizzeria in New York. What is different about Grimaldis pizzas? I don't know, but they are cooked using traditional coal brick ovens, which are apparently illegal in the Manhattan area (stems from old legislation, no clear reasoning). Considering that we started waiting in the sizable line half an hour BEFORE the restaurant even opened, my expectations were justifiably high. As soon as the clock hit twelve o'clock, we were finally beckoned in by the doorman (who looked like he had just finished making cement shoes at the local lake). The place was filled to the brim, and the line outside continued to extend down the footpath. The menu was pretty straight forward. Large or medium? Tomato or white-based pizza? Toppings? Extras? Sorry for anyone with a stapled stomach, but there is a no single slice policy, so we had to order and attempt to finish a whole pizza. It was brilliant and lives up to its billing. Apparently this place has been served with eviction papers recently, and will have to move, despite having the place consistently full. If that is true, then we sure are lucky to have had the chance to visit Grimaldis in the original location. The service and atmosphere were simple, and the all-male staff weren't the easiest on the eye, but in the end, it's all about pizza. A pizza which happens to be the best I've ever had.

You finished taking photos yet?

Having eaten our pizza and looking three months pregnant as a result, we decided to hire some bikes and ride over the Brooklyn bridge. Despite being right next to the shoreline, we still had to backtrack and make our way through Brooklyn Heights because the bridge extends quite far inland. All I wanted to was change up my

gears and hoon my way across the bridge at breakneck speeds. However, leaving my girlfriend in my dust would have had dire consequences, therefore I was forced to bring it down a notch. Comparing this to our bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge (which is more of a....hmmm.... red?), I wouldn't say it gave me the same feeling of awe, but it definitely was a good experience, regardless.

View of Manhattan from the bridge.

We eventually made our way to Ground Zero, something very high on my list of things to do in NY. It's 's obviously serious subject matter, so I will treat it as such. For those not faimliar with the 'Ground Zero' term, it's the area where the Twin Towers used to stand before the events of 9/11. The enormous impact to the financial center infrastructure, and of course, from an emotional perspective, is still very evident. Construction of the memorial, as well as 1 WTC (formerly known as the "Freedom Tower"), will be completed this September and January 2013, respectively. The memorial is named Reflecting Absence and has a associated preview site half a block away. This preview site is essentially a museum of sorts dedicated to 9/11. All net income from the store goes towards construction/maintenance of the memorial, as well as associated organisations such as the FDNY and NYPD funds, etc.

A model of the Statue of Liberty covered in badges and photos of servicemen, messages, etc.

Having occured on the other side of the world and at a time when I was much younger, it was hard to fully comprehend the scale of this tragedy, resulting in a sense of detachment. However,while pensively looking up at the suddenly rainy area of sky where the towers would have otherwise have covered, a sense of melancholy overcame me. My sadness towards this does not compare to those who have been more directly affected, but this experience has definitely increased my understanding about its impact.

Ground Zero (sort of.. virtually impossible to get a photo of any significance)
and the half-constructed "Freedom Tower". A couple of nearby buildings also are in the process of rebulding.

Grim ending to today's post, I know, but it was and eye-opening experience that I wanted to write about and share to those interested enough to read. Less depressing stuff next post, I promise.

D

A little update

2011-08-20T23:37:00.000-07:00

Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn.

Just thought I'd kill some time while the girlfriend does some retail therapy. My primary job is to look up from time to time and give the yes or no about a certain piece of clothing/shoe. Most of the time she disagrees with my opinion regarding fashion anyway, so I'm not to sure why she even asks...

I'm not one to self-inflict major financial damage via retail. In fact, I'm actually shocked by the level of consumerism in this city that seems to take hold of normal people and turn them into soulless demons. Demons whom are willing to claw each others' eyes out just to get that last size twelve, purple cashmere cardigan. Lets face it, sales in NZ and sales in the USA are from different dimensions. This leads me to wonder how many people get trodden to death during the Christmas shopping season.. However, I do tend to forget about my apparent disdain towards excessive material consumption when it comes to basketball apparel (Nike and Jordan being the main culprits). I've promised myself to be sensible, but at the same time it's almost a shame if I were not to take advantage of the favorable exchange rate.......hey, at least I'm not into high-end fashion where the packaging alone costs the equivalent of feeding the whole developing world.

In the end, I know my main purpose here ~~was~~ wasn't to shop. The day was balanced with a nice visit over the East River (which isn't really a river at all) where we spent a couple of hours at a Brooklyn food market. I like my bacon butties from the Dunedin farmers' market, but the selection at this place was incredible. Everything from homebrewed beer, asian style hotdogs, to tacos was on offer. This is the kind of thing a 'real' New Yorker would enjoy. Truly in a NY state of mind...assuming stuffing yourself silly with delicious morsels of food qualifies.

Hotdog with spring onions and charsiu...identity crisis, much?

Where's that Footlocker..?

A quick ride back over the East River landed us on 34th street. A little stroll down this road lead us to a little building called the Empire State Building. Not bad. I highly recommend anyone thinking of visiting this place to hire the optional audio tour guide. The experience is made that much better when an old Jewish(he sounds like Woody Allen, although he might be Italian..) NY'er describes the greatness of this building, and the greatness of NY city in general. Nothing much needs to be said about this iconic landmark, but below are a couple of photos to give you an idea about how awesome the visit was.

Random facts: In those days, there weren't many safety regulations so they were essentially constructing this building at a rate of one floor a day(!). Based on past occurences, they were expecting one worker to die for each floor, therefore approximately 100 people should have died. In fact, only FIVE people died during the construction(officially), with only two falling off and one guy getting his head knocked off when he looked up the elevator shaft (you get the idea).

Various views of and from the Empire State Building.

The floor area surrounding me is cluttered with shoes. It really does look a warzone. I've been sitting at this chair typing this blog on my phone for a while now. The people that walk by changes constantly, but they all have the same goal: get as much shit as their credit allows. The girlfriend still isn't back (we're in the shoe section of Macy's, the biggest department store in the world. 'Nuff said), so I'll have a quick nap amidst all this chaos...

D

These buskers in the subway were good. Especially the singer. The guy with the keyboard was singing, not the flute player. Singing while playing the flute at the same time would be crazy shit.

So this is where David Letterman is taped!

2011-08-20T00:21:00.000-07:00

Flying domestic in the US is a pretty grim process. Firstly, the 'standard fee' they slapped on for checking in luggage wasn't very pleasant. I know that not everyone checks in luggage, but it seems downright greedy considering the substantial price of the ticket alone. Then, we have customs. Admittedly, all the extra security and eyes make me nervous about small things. "Shit, where are those coins!! I can still hear clinking!!" Being frisked isn't on my list of things to do while on this trip. Also, the whole thing about allocating seats at the boarding gate because a flight is overbooked just doesn't make much sense to me. Why should I be allocated a seat last and grouped with the standby lot when I booked my ticket months prior? In the end I finally got my seat, but the same can't be said about the intoxicated cracker lady who got lead off the plane for a "talk". Lucky day for someone who purchased a standby ticket.

The air hostesses (stewardess?) were friendly, though.

A few hours consisting of broken sleep and getting my eyes gouged out by a monstrosity of a movie called Arthur later, we arrive in Atlanta for a stopover. Nothing exciting. It was 6am eastern time, after all. The drinks vending machine made purchasing a Powerade entertaining with its robotic suction/ejecting mechanism, though. Two and a half hours later, we hop on to another plane and before I knew it, we landed in New York.

"Wow, look at that!" Seeing the Manhattan skyline of the city was pretty impressive ("Yeah that's awesome"). That was until I realised that it wasn't Manhattan at all and I was looking in the wrong direction (probably New Jersey). I kept quiet to spare me the loss of dignity.

To say this city is busy is an understatement. It's like saying Sanjay, my Aborigine friend, is brown (he's more of a 'burnt to a crisp' tone). Despite all the excitement, all I wanted to do was have a quick nap before doing anything. Turns out the place we are staying at is on the 4th floor and has no lift. I'm not a complete leaf, but carrying full, overweight suitcases up flights of stairs is a bitch no matter how you look at it.

Ended up skipping the nap and decided to walk a few blocks to Times Square. Yes, blocks. We managed to find a really decent sublet right in the middle of the city on Craigslist for a very fair price. For people who are thinking of hitting New York, or any foreign place for that matter and want to stay at accommodation other than hotels/hostels etc., be careful about who you deal with on Craigslist. LOL the first listing i clicked and dealt with turned out to be a scam from Nigeria "PLEASE SEND THE MONEY ASAP" *lol*. Luckily no money was exchanged. As long as they only ask for a couple of nights deposit and do it through Paypal, it usually means it's genuine.


"Hey hombre, could you spare some change? It's really hot in here."

As for my visit to Times Square..it was what I expeted it to be; ridiculously commercialised, and BUSY. It was daytime when we first went but when we returned later that night, we couldn't tell the difference at times because the lights and billboards were so intensely bright. I really do wonder how much P.Diddy paid to have himself look so BOSS on that massive billboard on the side of the building. He can't rap to save his life and his producing is questionable, but he sure knows how to make coin and "mindfuck"*LOL*.

Half the day had already passed by the time we arrived, so we decided to settle for a Broadway show. Settle probably isn't the best word, because these shows are, from what I heard, pretty amazing. Since we were seeking tickets for a show for the same evening, we could get discounted tickets from Ticket(ing?) Kiosk Times Square (TKTS) which is essentially a ticket booth selling heavily discounted tickets for most shows showing that day. As you can guess, the line was pretty nuts. An hour and a half wait to get our tickets to Cirque du Soleil: Zarkana (it was tempting to give in to the scalpers, even though they probably would have ripped us off).

140 down to 70 each. Probably worth the hot, long wait....

Before the show started, we decided to get a slice of pizza for dinner. As we were making our way to sit down and wait for our food to get prepared, we were told we were only allowed to sit on the stools in the corner, away from the main dining area. I'm sure I had my "WTF, bitch" face on for a second and I had temptations of busting out the race card, but it turns out they have some rule about no pizza being consumed on the tables. They were reserved for pasta consumption. Note to self: people who eat pizza are considered savages in New York.

If you read my last post, you'll probably remember me mention that I got "hustled" by some black dudes. Well, as I said, I bought a Cal. Golden Bears shirt from Berkeley and decided to wear it. One of the guys gets drawn to it (probably from Cali) and introduces himself as Timboking and proceeds to give me his mixtape. Before I get to say much, he has already signed it and asks for a donation. Ok, fine, no biggy, he seems like a cool enough guy. However, more guys come over and try to get a piece of the action. They all seemed OK and weren't asking for much, except this one particular guy who asked for 20 bux. I didn't have any small notes on me at that particular time and I wasn't really curious about what would happen if i declined, considering I was surrounded by several buff and black G's. The guy gave me change alright. A change in the amount I was meant to get back. Lets just say it wasn't what I was expecting back. Lesson learned. I did a quick search of Timboking and apparently he's an associate of the Wutang Clan. If that's legit, then that's pretty cool. I feel less fob.


Probably infringing on copyrights so I better make it clear that I DO NOT OWN THIS PHOTO

The first of a several Broadway shows that we plan to see turned out to be pretty awesome. It's a blend of singing, dancing, circus tricks, etc. reinvented with a fantasy theme and design. In a nutshell, it's a story about a wizard who loses his romantic interest, loses his magic as a result and then gets stuck in a pretty messed up realm full of f-ed up entities. To be honest, I didn't know what the hell they were going on about, but it sure was orgasmic for the eyes. Highlights included the tightrope walkers on the highwire. They didn't just walk along the wire(rope?). They ran, they danced, did flips and stood on each other among other things while maitaning balance. Another mention is the wheel of death act where two acrobats did various maneuvers on this continuously rotating contraception. It is pretty hard to describe so google it and you'll see what i mean. The clowns were entertaining between acts, albeit a tiny bit cheesy. One scene involved a clown being held high over the audience to depict him travelling through time and space (or something) and he proceeds to flash the Boston Red Sox logo, to the chagrin of the crowd. He redeemed himself by correcting it to the New York Yankees logo which resulted in a loud cheer from everyone.

Not everyday that you see clowns fly. Or get hustled by big black people...

D

All you can eat Hotpot, UC Berkeley

2011-08-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping up with the news back home New Zealand and apparently the country has had a white out. Can't say that I'm going green over it. I choose warm, predictable weather over sleet and snow (debatable whether it's actually snow) any day of the week. Hope you people back home are keeping warm.

Our stay in San Francisco was fairly brief. It provided us with a much needed breather after our long flight. Having already been to most of the attractions in the area the last time I was here, there wasn't much need to do anything else but sleep and eat.
I must say, though, the extra rest was negated somewhat. Some people see declining food as being rude, therefore, the act of eating was quite an exhaustive process as I was essentially forced to eat way beyond my usual limit. Things were further complicated due to the fact I don't tolerate spicy food....details of that don't need to be shared...

Easily the biggest dish we had at a Hunan/Guangdong cuisine resturant in Fremont. That's a fish HEAD.

Despite having said that we pretty much accomplished nothing but eat and sleep, we did make one special trip to visit the University of California, Berkeley. The scale and atmosphere of this place simply trumps the University of Otago.

*gasp!*Traitor! Blasphemy! Stupid asian!

Zoology and Botany. One of many impressive buildings.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my days in Dunedin dearly. What other students are known for utilizing their higher education to destroy public/private property, while also doing a passable Haka* as a challenge to the local riot squad? All the more amazing when you take into account how many were under the influence! Joking aside, it is what it is, though. Berkeley has much greater facilities. You just can't beat larger enrollment numbers and better funding. Furthermore, unlike at Otago, people actually buy stuff from the university merchandise store! Myself included. Unfortunately the UC Bears shirt I purchased lead to me getting hustled by several big, black guys. I'll get to that later.

D

so, how do i start this thing....?

2011-08-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

Hey peeps. For those of you who actually bother to read this, the little blurb on the right-hand will give you the gist/purpose of this blog. However, I’m going to expand on it slightly, mainly because I can’t think of a more creative introduction. Bear with me as this is my first blog post ever.

So yeah....going to Beijing in early September with my mate (we’ll call him Steve Rogers for now) for a semester of Mandarin Chinese language study. We will be attending Beijing Language and Culture University, because of its focus on the language, as well as from listening to a number of recommendations. In addition to improving our language skills (in Steve’s case, a LACK of), hopefully we’ll meet people from all over the world and have a good time in general. I pride in the fact that I’ve explored Beijing and many other parts of China quite extensively already so I will be able to be a tour guide of sorts for Steve.

Jokes aside, my mate's body proportions are just like the CGI altered Steve Rogers. They would be twins, if it weren't for the fact that he has squintier eyes, yellower skin, blacker hair, and eats more rice (probably).

This blog won’t be a traditional “guide” to BLCU. I’ve been guilty of taking many of my past overseas experiences for granted. Therefore, as a result, I don’t have much to look back on, with only a few photos and videos here and there, with whatever I remember in my head to supplement them. This blog will be a way for me to document my experiences for future reference/laughs. With that said, however, if anyone happens to read these entries, I do hope they find something helpful. At the very least, I hope it’s marginally interesting.

Before my adventure in Beijing starts, however, I’ll be visiting San Francisco, New York and Vancouver for a few weeks. This will be my first time in New York so I’m quite excited to experience the New York State of Mind that Jay-Z, Nas and Billy Joel seem so chuffed about. Pity no Knicks games will be on. Yes, i know the Yankees are playing this week, but I just have trouble liking baseball. Chances are I will go to the game, but I won’t be crying if we happen to overlook it. Vancouver is where many of my relatives live so it will be a nice visit, regardless of whether there is much to do over there.

In all honesty, I’m writing most of this retrospectively, as I’m already in New York. I have been too ~~lazy~~ busy. I’ll try and make it a goal to update this blog regularly, preferably in the evening about events that occurred during that day. I’ll cut short of promising, though, as my track record isn’t very good when it comes to that kind of thing.

I'll fill you guys in tomorrow. The flights really took it out of me.