And… we’re back.

Apologies for the hiatus…  it was due 1% to my difficulties in accessing the blog site, 40% because I had nothing to report, and 59% (because “nothing to report” has never really stopped me before) to laziness.

I can’t really put my finger on it, but there is something very different about this trip to China.  Two years ago, everything was new and exciting, and things were in flux everywhere.  Neighbourhoods were being knocked down in preparation for shiny skyscrapers.  Foreigners were around, but still pretty rare; no one really came to China unless they had a pretty good reason (and usually a very interesting backstory).  Our hotel faced a sewage canal, and was basically surrounded by hutongs.  I had a roommate who was a treasuretrove of China knowledge, who could enlighten me about Five Year Plans and the Great Leap Forward whenever I wished.

Today, those skyscrapers are buzzing (or soon to be) with new homes and offices; I’m not sure anyone remembers whatever hutong was there before.  Foreigners are EVERYWHERE, and it’s mostly because China’s now cool because of the Olympics.  Our hotel is in a business district, with the attendant high prices and bad food.  And I find myself in the uncomfortable position of knowing more about China than many of the people I associate with… and not just the things I know because I’ve been here before, but even the history and (especially) current events.  This is shocking to me because so many people here are either Chinese or studying East Asian Studies, and because I have no particular education in this subject (other than what I learned from my former roommate, M; James Fallows’ blog; and the China Digital Times).

China’s different; this group is different (younger, and — dare I say — on the whole, more frivolous)… and (of course) I’m different.

This is not to say that I’m not having fun (because I am) — but I haven’t stayed out until 6 a.m. yet, and a cab ride home, bleary-eyed and in the sunlight, might be kind of fun once or twice.

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Our class trip to Xi’an from Thursday night to Monday morning was… just like you would expect a class trip to be.  I skipped out on my class trip (to Qufu — the birthplace of Confucius — and Taishan — a mountain) last time, and opted instead for a fun-filled trip to Hangzhou and Shanghai with friends.  I kind of regretted missing out on Taishan, but now, really, I don’t.  Not much is worth the hurry-up-and-wait (and-wait-and-wait-and-wait).

But I did get to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, which I had regretted not seeing last time.  Not to mention a bunch of “educational” crap I really could have done without.  Oh, and the food was terrible.  Buffets with gift shops.  Yum.

Also, the train:  we took hard sleepers.  Luckily, they weren’t actually “hard”, but they were six to a (very tiny) berth — three on each side.  I had a middle bed both ways, which wasn’t too bad.  On the way there, our berth had a wall with a (curtained) door; on the way back, no wall, and no curtain (so you basically slept open to anyone walking by, who you hoped wouldn’t steal the stuff you had to store on a rack across the narrow hallway).

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For those of you who have Facebook (and if you are my Facebook friend), I posted an album of my first week here with D.  The delay was (again) mostly due to laziness, because I have to convert all my .raw photos to .jpgs before I can upload (annoying).

I <3.

I <3 Sichuan.

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The earthquake is big news here (obviously). The story becomes more tragic by the day. The other night I skipped out on a group excursion so I could have a leisurely shower and a cup of tea, and turn in early. As I was getting into the shower, I heard an interview begin on the television (which I had on in the background). The first question the interviewer asked was whether it was lucky that the epicentre wasn’t in a more populated area, such as Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. The answer (just as earnest as the question) was, yes, it was lucky.

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For breakfast we go to another hotel, where they serve a multitude of Chinese dishes, most of which wouldn’t be considered breakfast food in the West (dumplings, spicy noodles, fried rice, fried bread, and my personal favourite, watermelon). They are lined up in silver catering trays and refilled constantly for us and the hungry Chinese businessmen who (I presume) stay at the hotel. A few days ago, one of my classmates had picked up a little pot of something jelly-like to try. When he tasted it, it was completely disgusting. Several days later, he found out it was fuel, used to keep the trays warm.

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I find it annoying that I can read my blog very easily, but it’s a bitch to post anything.

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I think they’re onto some of my tricks. As you may know, I have a serious and long-standing addiction to reading recipe blogs. Most of them are blocked here. I do not see how a discussion about the virtues of using Greek-style yogurt in a cupcake recipe (or an AOL article entitled “How to Make Iced Tea”, for that matter) is a threat to the social order. But I’m stretching the limits of my computer knowledge, and possibly some internet monitor’s patience. Occasionally my tricks will stop working for a time, and I’m not sure if it’s just the idiosyncracies of the internet, or that someone is throttling my traffic. I think it’s best to err on the side of paranoia. As of now, I can’t even access my Gmail, but the China Daily is loads mockingly fast.

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Speaking of paranoia, I’m beginning to wonder if we’re under surveillance. People keep taking pictures (and video) of us for no reason. And they’re not subtle about it, either. Some guy stood around us for about 8-10 minutes the other day recording video. He would move around a bit, but always stayed within 5-15 feet of us, at one point approaching the three-foot personal space boundary that almost caused me to freak out. At other times, people will pretend they’re texting or doing something with their phones, and take pictures. It’s not like foreigners are such a rarity here anymore, so my blonde hair isn’t much of a novelty.

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Sorry I haven’t posted much. Like I said, it’s really, really, annoying. I guess I should just declare blog bankruptcy, and switch platforms. That doesn’t appeal to me.

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Several months ago, with the help of my amazing friend P, I purchased a digital SLR. It was shiny and wonderful. Then, also with P’s encouragement, I made my very first eBay purchase: a 4GB compact flash memory card, shipped directly from Shanghai to my door for a grand total of about $23 Canadian. I began shooting in .raw format (which I couldn’t do before, with only a measly 16MB memory card). Then I discovered that my computer wouldn’t recognize the .raw pictures — but I kept taking photos in the hopes that I’d be able to solve the problem. And I did. The other day I went to the largest electronics mall in Asia and for a whopping 25 kuai, bought myself a compact flash memory card reader. (It reads other cards as well, but I don’t care about those.) Afterwards we got mobbed by Olympics mascots and introduced to a crowd by some guy with a microphone as Jianadaren (Canadians), but that’s another story.

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(Interestingly, I wasn’t able to find even a 2GB memory card at that electronics mall for the same price as my eBay purchase. I guess because this mall is all legit and stuff, it’s way more expensive.)

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All that said, I haven’t uploaded any photos yet… I’ll get on that soon.

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Today was a good day, funny in a you-had-to-be-there kind of way, so I won’t get into it here. Needless to say, I <3 Beijing.

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I also <3 comments. Ahem.