My Roommates

I have been asked a couple times to mention my roommates, so here we go...

Cissy and DouDou are two 19 year old Chinese girls. THey are teachers at the same school as me. They work with the 2 and 3 year olds for the most part.

No. I will not post pictures of them on the internet. Basically, I don't think its right to post people's pictures without their permission. And, I don't know how to ask for that permission. So, there it is. I could probably figure out how to ask, but I figure that is a minor detail in the grand scheme of things, so I'm not going to worry about it right now.

As far as their English... Let's just say that it is slightly better than my Chinese. THey have the same problems with English sentences that I have with Chinese ones. They do seem to know more English words for "objects" ("ball", "book", etc.) than I do in Chinese.

We have a system worked out. Every day I teach them 3 new things. So far, we have focused on school-related sentences like, "Say after me", "Open your books", and other things like that.

In general... It's been a long time since I've dealt with 19 year old girls, so all I can say is that they seem just like any 19 year old girls anywhere. They talk to each other about boys, music, movie stars, etc. (I do understand some words here and there.) Of course, even if they were speaking in English, these are conversations that would go pretty much past me. After all, I am twice their age and a guy.

So, all in all, they seem like any girls you would find anywhere... They like soap operas, pop music on the TV, and they giggle a lot.

And that is a little something about my roommates.

Magores the Shoplifter

Okay. My dad gave me a little bit of a hard time yesterday about not posting any stories yet, so I made time today to tell you about how I almost got busted for shoplifting on my 3rd day in Beijing.

This happened about a week or so ago. I had been in Beijing for a total of 3 days at that point.

I did a bunch of running around with one of the Directors from the School, and was on my way home.

On the main street outside my apartment building there are a number of stores: A Supermarket, a tobacco shop, a kodak store, a Qwik Mart, and about 40 hair cutting shops.

So, after a long day of seeing stuff, that I didn't know what I was seeing, I went to the Qwik Mart and bought 3 beers. Two warm bottles, and one cold can. I took my plastic bag o'beer and continued up the street. Simple enough so far.

Next to my apartment building is the supermarket. Remembering that I needed hangers, I went in there. I looked around a bit, found what I needed, and went to pay.

Just as I was walking through the checkstand after paying, two "Ladies in Black" stopped me. The main lady spoke a little English. Basically what she was saying was, "Where did you get these beers? Why didn't you pay for these beers? Where is your receipt for these beers?"

I searched my pocket for the receipt. But, it was a Qwik Mart for gosh sakes! I didn't ask for a receipt.

So, here I am... I've been in the country 3 days. I'm the only American within 5 miles of the place. I haven't registered with the US Embassy yet. I haven't registered with the Beijing police yet, so I'm technically an illegal alien. I don't have a receipt to prove I paid for everything elsewhere. And I have two Ladies in Black accosting me. (Keep in mind that the Beijing police wear black uniforms.)

So, I did what came natural. I ran like the dickens!!!

No. Not really.

I just did what any obnoxious American would do in this spot...

I said... "Look lady. I just bought these down at the Qwik Mart. You can come down there with me right down, and I'll prove it. In fact, you don't even sell these beers here. You don't even sell COLD beer here! Come down to the Qwik Mart and I'll prove that I bought the things down there!"

The whole time I'm thinking... "Look lady. I'm the only white guy within five miles of this place. I draw stares just by EXISTING here! Do you really think that I'm stupid enough to try and steal?"

Another thing to keep in mind, is that anything and everything will draw a crowd in this city. Dead ant? 5 people staring. Falling leaf? 10 people watching. White guy getting hassled by the cops? Priceless.

So, anyway... Cops accusing. White Guy arguing.

Luckily, the other lady in black seemed to see the logic of my arguement (this is after she felt my beer to see it was cold, read the side of the bag to see "Kwik Mart", etc) , so they just kind of waved me out of the store.

Yesterday (one week after these events) was my first time back in that supermarket. Needless to say, I did not bring any bags inside with me, and I kept my hands in plain sight at all times.

Feel free to comment on these postings...

In case you haven't noticed, there IS a comment link on each of the postings... Feel free to comment if you like. HOWEVER...

Just remember that my mom and dad know how to use the internet, and they know about this site, so nothing too embarassing please.

And, Mom and Dad... Remember... My friends know how to use the internet, and they know about this site, so nothing too embarassing please. :)

Stories? You want stories?

Well, my plan was to have all kinds of stories and pictures up here already, but it hasn't quite worked out that way.

I forgot to bring a power adaptor (220->120), so I haven't been able to use any "plug-in" type things, so no way to type things at my convenience, and upload it.

On top of that, when my camera ran out of batteries, I lost a bunch of the pictures that I had taken already. So, I kind of starting from scratch as far as the pictures go. Today and tomorrow I will be working on getting the electronics side of things squared away.

I do have one picture that I can share with you right now if you want. Here is a picture of a payphone located at the intersection of Wusheng Lu and Songyu Beilu...

As for WHY? I would take a picture like this... Long story.

Okay.. I made it.

I'm sitting in the office right now, so I don't really have time to write a whole bitg story, but I just wanted to let people know that I am now here in Beijing, and I'm digging it so far.

There are a LOT of things that I'm going to have to get used to, but I think it will be fine.

I can't read most of the writing on the stuff in the stores, but there is a 7-11 a few blocks for my house. So that's good. Nachos and a Big Bite are the same everywhere.

I tried one of the local beers yesterday. Quite good stuff.

The elevator lady in my apt. building seems very nice.

My roommates seem nice, if quite shy. Thats a whole 'nother story. I'll get to it as time permits.

I've met some of my co-workers just moments ago. All very nice. There are some other foreign teachers here, but I haven't met them yet.

Anyway... That's it for now.

I'll have more exciting stories next time.

Magores

The Countdown has Begun - Here's a little Chinese lesson before I go.

11 days to go.

Still have a lot to do before I leave

I won't have much internet access between now, and when I leave so I thought I should put something up here while I have the chance.

First... Here's a little Chinese lesson for you:



I posted that as an image, since I'm going to assume that most people reading this don't have chinese fonts installed on their computers.

If this looks the same as the picture above, then you do have the fonts installed: 我去中国

Anyway, what it says is: "I'm going to China." Or, more literally it says "I go center country." (Center + Country = China)

There is an official system for transcribing the Chinese pronunciation into English sounds, but I'm going to ignore that for your benefit.

In my own special, very un-official, and completely inaccurate system the way to say "I'm going to China" in Mandarin Chinese is "Woah choo Jong Gwoah".

So there you go.... A little Mandarin Chinese lesson for you.