Okay. Part 2. Lessee�� where��d I leave off? Oh yeah:
Some things I need to clear up first. If you��re reading this, as always, pass it on to as many people you can:
The Bu Hao DVD��s and VHS tapes could not be completed in time for my trip. Consequently, we��ll be selling them (if you bought them already, you��ll received them) at the beginning of the coming school year. If you already paid, we hope to ship a copy out to you before school starts. Special features:
DVD:
Directors Commentary, Teaser trailer, real trailer, original Bu Hao short film, Production notes, ��What is Bu Hao?��, Painball (hilarious short thingy we shot. It��s worth it), extended outtakes, and the pre-show speech.
VHS:
Both trailers at the end
Now, back to our story:
Angee wanted some Sprite, but none of us knew exactly how to say it. I tried asking the waiter for ��white colored coca-cola�� to which he responded ��Oh! Pi2 Jiu3�� or ��Oh! You want beer!��
Kinda disturbing how easy it is to get alcohol here eh?
There��s technically no legal drinking age here, and the only deterrent we have is that our head prof told us to refrain from the schnapps and liquor. It doesn��t help that the rest of the cigarette smokin�� beer drinkin�� college kids are out partyin�� all night either.
But don��t worry about me: Coca-cola is about $0.35 a can here (Although I swear it tastes different)
I forgot to add that on Saturday, we visited the Summer Palace. It��s massive, but nothing special as I��ve been there before.
So we went to sleep. The next day was World Cup Sunday. Angee was pretty pumped up for the game. He had asked around, and had found out they were gonna be playing the game on a big screen in one of the school cafeterias. We get there one hour before the game starts, and it��s already pretty packed. Thankfully, my mom brings some KFC, and it��s a veritable World Cup partay. Once the game started, there were about one thousand people packed into the cafeteria watching it. The cheers when the ball looked like it was goin�� in were loud. When Ronaldo finally scored, the entire room went crazy. It was probably the loudest room I have ever been in, and the best World Cup watchin�� party I��ll probably ever go to.
We leave, and find that Reed��s brand new $18 bike had been stolen. We do a bit of searching around the area (apparently thieves will move your bike to a farther location and then steal it later under the cover of darkness. Of course, it was already pretty dark.) but fail to find it. My bike had been attached to Reed��s, and the only reason I still have it was this crappy metal bike lock (Before the game, Jimmy had taken my keys and gone ahead, so I had to pick this very same lock with a hairpin and a small luggage key). I don��t know whether Chinese bike thieves here just plain suck at their job, or if they thought they were taking too long. Luckily, Angee brought his circular tumbler bike lock, which should deter all but the most skilled of thieves.
Sadly, the next day (Monday) we take the placement test. Even for me, I thought it was extremely difficult. The listening comprehension section required you listen to something, and then pick the correct response from a pool of CHINESE CHARACTER��D answers, which made it that much more difficult. Imagine my surprise when I got thrown into the 5th Class. (There are 6 classes, 1 being ��I-know-no-chinese�� and 6 being ��I-know-so-much-Chinese-I-Don��t-Even-Know-Why-I��m-Here��). Reed, Angee, Jimmy, and I are amazed beyond words that we weren��t thrown into the first class. We had listened to some of the college students here, and they were pretty much fluent. There are two types of classes: listening and speaking, and writing and reading. I��m put into 5 for the listening class and 4 for the speaking. Jimmy goes into the 4th class on both. Angee goes 3/4, and Reed goes 3/3.
So today was the first day of classes and it was fairly boring, but there��s only four hours worth of classes, so I guess that��s good. In our Writing class, we had a 10 minute discussion of the ins and outs of Chinese beers. Felt kinda left outta that one. We basically have the rest of the day off. Angee and I chose to do Tai Chi as our extra activity, and that starts tomorrow bright and early at 6:30 am. Yay.
Now for some random stuff:
There are loads of police officers here. Whenever we pass, we shout ��POPO ALERT!�� or ��LOOK OUT! POPOS!�� I think they��re beginning to catch on that Popo = them, but we��re still making fools of ourselves (stupid americans.)
There��s also this minimart, that goes underground, and has EVERYTHING. There��s a supermarket. There��s shoes. There��s sports equipment. There��s electronics. There��s clothing. There��s a bakery. There��s no bathroom. The restaurant in the minimart is great too. We can get a good bowl of noodles for 5 Yuan. It��s become our favorite lunch spot. It kinda feels like they��re making service extra slow for us because we��re stupidamericans, but we get that a lot. A favorite pastime of several waiters is to call out the others and listen to us butcher the language. The ladies working in the sports department laughed their collective asian asses off when Angee attempted to express his need for a small ball air pump. Luckily for us, they don��t quite understand what the upraised middle finger means.
Alright. I can��t think of anything else for today.
