Oda in China

I, a lollie

2006-10-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

The temperature is dropping rapidly in Beijing. However, when I went to find out what was wrong with the central heating in our building (I and Lisa are slowly turning into popsicles), the reply was rather surprising (although it shoudn`t be by now.) It wasn`t turned on. Why? I've been doing my homework wearing mittens for almost a week, and the central heating is off?? Well, she said, we turn it on on the first of November every year. Why, don`t you have a blanket?
Beuraucratic China has reached yet another peak; date-controlled central heating, and I`m off to buy a fan heater. Tai hao le!

乘德

2006-10-21T04:36:00.000-07:00

With 3 kilos of lonely planet guide in my backpack, increasing confidence in my Chinese language skills, my mother and brother to impress, and my lounges ready to burst with Beijing air, I set out one morning to the railway station in south Beijing. Destination; Chengde. Chengde is a charming, European-style city four hours north of Beijing by train. Situated far up in the mountains in former Manchuria, it has become a popular refuge for Beijingers who wants to escape the pollution and hassle of the big city. It is also becoming an increasingly popular destination for foreign tourists, due to a gigantic mountain resort built by a Ming prince, and the many surrounding temples. Partly out of curiosity, but mostly because of lack of language skills, we booked three "hard seat"-tickets, and got on the train. In today's China, you simply have to pay more to get a softer seat, but the trains were originally built this way to separate the government officials from the "common masses"... And as a white family, we definately attracted a lot of attention. Especially after I started speaking Chinese to people. We were all quite overwhelmed by how visible the old communism was outside the capital. As the train humped its way through the plains outside bijing, you could see the agricultural production units everywhere. "Villages", consisting only of big halls. No family homes. I couldn't help but wonder what those societies look like today. Surely they're not living like heards of sheep anymore? But the architecture is the same...
The mountains were beautiful with yellow leaves and incredibly fresh air. The mountain resort was a bizarre experience in many ways. If you ever go there as a tourist, don't expect good treatment from anyone working at any of the sights, as they've obviously been instructed to try to rip any foreigner off. The inhabitants were warm and friendly, though. The mountain resort is modeled after the forbidden city in Beijing, but everything is on a much smaller scale. There was an incredibly beautiful hall in unpainted sandalwood, that smelled fantastic, and there was a big lake surrounded by little pavillions in various styles. The whole place seemed kind of surreal, though, and it's difficult to explain why. But we all felt it, and it was almost uncomfortable.
The second day we went to the Puning Tibetan Buddhist Temple, which was definately the highlight of the trip. The massive temple is situated on a steep hill, surrounded by pine trees. Though built in the same style as the Yonghe Gong temple in beijing, the buildings seemed so much more refined, and the ambiance was much more authentic. Probably becuase the puning temple still serves as a temple, not just a tourist sight.

R.I.P.

2006-10-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

Our goldfish died. All four of them. How is this possible? And does this mean that I'll make a horrible mother? Will my children die from too much food? (very likely, would most of you probably say)
May they (mr. blue, mr. pink, mr. big, and mr. small (we were going to name them after personality, but weren't able to detect any in any of them...)) have a glorious afterlife in goldfish heaven.
Amen.

Why hurry when you’re not in a hurry?

2006-10-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

Beijing is moving with the speed of a somewhat worn bicycle.
Literally. After spending my first month in bottomless fear every time I had to cross a street, I am now queen of the traffic on my little blue bike. Superior to pedestrians, horses, and even cars, I cruise around, realising that it is, in fact, the bikes that control the speed of the traffic here, probably because we outnumber the other vehicles by far. And for some reason, Beijing looks better from from the seat of a bike. You realise that there sun is shining through the trees on your way to university, that the sounds of the city are as varied as those in a symphonic piece by Stravinsky, because they change faster, and that, if you're not too late, you'll have to wait behind the same old fruit vendor with his skinny mule to cross the same street every morning at the same time. And even better; my very Norwegian "Either you go as fast as you can, or you get out of my way"- attitude to both walking and biking has been severely challenged. Because there's always going to be someone in front of you going slow. And sometimes I just run out of excuses for hurrying when I'm not late, and trot along at the same mellow pace. And quite often I enjoy it too.

Why hurry when you’re not in a hurry?

雍和宫

2006-09-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

I just thought I should dedicate a post to my visit to the Yonghe Gong tibetan buddhist temple in north Beijing. I went there on the 30th og August, shortly after arriving in Beijing, but it made a lasting impression, and I have some nice pictures. The temple was built in the 17th century during the Ming dynasty as a residence for a prince. After he moved into the forbidden city it was made into a temple, and became a lamasery in 1744, housing buddhist monks from Tibet and Inner Mongolia. The temple concists of a series of buildings in a straight line where you have a hall with an altar or a buddha statue, a square with people burning insence, a slightly bigger hall, another square, an even bigger hall, a square, etc, etc. The last hall was housing an 18m tall standing golden Buddha statue. It is the largest statue in the world that is carved out of a single piece of wood. I felt very tiny walking around among these gigantic statues with the funny looks on their faces. The ambiance was very queer; I felt like all the statues were staring intensly at something I coudn't see, and that I had to be careful not to disturb them so they would look at me instead. The creepiest thing was that expression that all the Buddhas had. That calm, mysterious look, like they know something. It made me realise how far away from my own culture I was, because I had no idea what those faces were meant to express! I mean, religious or not, when you see the sad, pained face of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, you KNOW why he's sad and pained (especially those of us who grew up with alternative parents and the Webber-version of the story. Anyway.) or, when he's healing some crippled person or talking to some children; calm mysterious, like he knows something. We know what he knows. But at that temple, I had no idea. In spite of 13 years in Norwegian public schools, where we get the textbook-version of all the major religions repeated over and over again, I realised there and then how little I actually know.
I left feeling humbled and respectful.

Monday night

2006-09-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

My building has a courtyard. And except for the fact that it's nothing like the courtyard in London at all, it's just like London. Anyway. I can see it from my room, it's pretty in a very Chinese way, with water and bushes and stones, and it's packed with children during daytime. This night, however, it became my refuge for a while.
After my last day of freedom and blissful ignorance before term starts tomorrow, I decided to go down to the gym and take a yoga class. However, I was changed and ready at 7pm, but instead of the little Chinese lady with the calm voice, I found a bunch of beefy Chinese men jumping up and down on a couple of boxes in the aerobic room. The yoga class was at eight, and I went, rather disappointed, back to the treadmills, where I found my classmate Carlos Casanova. This resulted in me running much harder than I had intended to (hey, who wouldn't run hard next to a guy called Casanova?), and when the yoga class was finally finished, I was exhausted. I've been trying to cook dinner. Seriously. I've tried. But when you can get excellent vegetarian Jiaozi for 5 kuai (5nok, 40p) right across the street, it is hard. So I went in, ordered my food, and the waitress gave me ten minutes. Ten minutes to wait for the food, ten minutes completely free from expectations. Uncertain of what to do with such a privelidge, I went across the street and bought some Chinese mini-apples from one of the late night fruit stalls (they're everywhere). Then I realised: the courtyard! There aren't any benches there, so I just sat down under a tree next to the water. I looked at the water, listened to the wind in the trees, and thought about nothing. I do this in Norway as well, but I usually get funny looks from people. The thing is, I always thought the courtyard was empty at night, because it looks that way from my window, but when I looked around, there were lots of people, half-hidden my the bushes, just like me. Not doing anything. Just staring at the sky...

Dear God

2006-09-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

Thank you for:
-Scooters, and guys who let you sit on the back of them
-Innocence
-Tequila shots with salt and lemon.
-The ability to not have too many of those...
-Children
-Gay men who love my shoes
-Oreo cookies
-Straight men with Playstation2 (Star Wars Battlefront)
-Good conversations
-The fact that people are still getting married
-My duvet
-Chilli cabbage on the street a 2.30am
-Beautiful girls, and the fact that there are so many of them
-Paintings of men with red sunglasses
-Wind

Warning!

2006-09-09T02:33:00.000-07:00

Pigtails in China can be dangerous. Old women walk up to you and pull them.

Sniff...

2006-09-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of controversy and unconventionality, I decided to get a really bad cold in a 30C temperature. Great. So at the moment, I'm enjoying Beijing's vast selection of cheap, pirated dvd's, questionable crackers and buckets of tea, which is conciderably better than having a cold and studying, which I've done most of the week. I'm done registering, and am now officially a student at Beijing Normal University. My student ID is a passport-looking booklet with my picture and lots of stamps and calligraphy. Much cooler than my plastic card from London. Being a university student is a big thing in China, as it is not nearly as available as it is in the west. I did my placement test yesterday, and I think it went OK. The written part, and the listening was really fucking impossible, but it's a placement test, so I was prepared that most of it would be undoable. The grammar part was ok, and some of the reading comprehension (although it seemed like I kept understanding either the text or the questions, but never both). I think the main problem with my Chinese is how little vocabulary I have. Time to practice characters... The spoken part went loads better than the written one, though.
So now I'm lying in my bed, waiting for Chris to call, and listening to the wind outside. This is definately the coldest day so far, I had to wear a jacket this morning.

Dao le!

2006-09-06T00:12:00.000-07:00

After a very turbulent start (those fortunate enough not to have been subject to my whining at the time, doesn’t need to get an update now. Trust me.) me and my flatmate Lisa (from my class in London) were happily installed in a beautiful flat in Xiao Xi Tian on tuesday, 22. Aug. The flat is big, clean and bright with huge windows and wooden floors. Luckily, we had James’ Chinese friend, Becks with us to interpret. We would never have gotten it otherwise (at least not at the same price). Thank you, Becks.
Since we both miss our boyfriends desperately, I've purchased a sturdy guy with green, fuzzy hair from a plant seller to keep us company. His name is Bob. Bob Marley. (We love you, Bob)
After a bureaucratic hassle beyond descripiton, I've finally managed to register at university, and to get a temporary residence permit. Nobody speaks English, and there is so much paperwork that needs sorting out. The only advice I can give on dealing with Chinese bureaucracy is; don't assume that anything's ok, and make sure you have lots of time. Don't procrastinate. Ever.
I've been here for two weeks now, and I'm really starting to like it. The Chinese people are warm and friendly, and life here is slow and comfortble. (so far. Uni hasn't started yet...) What facinates me the most about China so far is how public everything is; when I'm walking through my area at night, I see people having their home-cooked dinners on little tables out on the street; there are the old people with their stools and fans sitting on the street gossiping, the children with David Beckham-shirts playing football outside my door, groups of women dancing, the same old man sitting on the same bench listening to his radio every night. Beijing is alive. Every single part of it. All the time.