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May 08, 2009
Friday
Authored by John
Today is Friday, our second day of classes. We met after breakfast at our classroom - we were on our own for the first time to get there on time. We concluded the social change lectures about the rising elderly population in China and the problems which may arise because of it. We ate lunch at a Japanese restaurant. We had rice, a weird salad, and breaded chicken with an amazing sauce for some extreme dippage. The restaurant was located in a basement, but when we got down there were several Japanese style rooms where people had to take off their shoes before they entered. JM and I wanted to go in one of those rooms, but we all ate at a table in the middle of the place ... :(
We went to Lenovo for a company visit in the afternoon, and unlike the Microsoft presentation (which was more of an informal lecture), this was more of a guided tour. It showcased the history of the Chinese company and its future plans for global domination... of the PC market. It bought IBM's PC division back in 2004 and they showed us all the different models of desktops and notebooks. They are all extremely different - some notebooks look like Macs, others look like Dells, others look like older IBM models. It is almost like they want to cater to every person's individual tastes, which has its advantages and disadvantages. The building was very cool looking and the tour was very interactive. We had fun playing with all the gadgets and learning about the company.
Later in the afternoon, 9 of us ventured into the Tsinghua campus to play basketball. A few of the guys from the trip purchased a ball and we took that with us to the basketball courts. One thing we have found out about the Chinese is that they LOVE basketball, but are kinda confused about how to play it. All the people playing are either in full uniform (Houston Rockets, LA Lakers, Denver Nuggets, etc) or in jeans and shirts, or just normal clothes. Plus, they all have really weird looking shots. Regardless, there are probably about 100 courts on their campus and they were PACKED late in the day. We played a full court game (none of us are extraordinarily good) and were exhausted afterwards. Plus, the thick smoggy air made it hard to breathe for a few hours after we got back. It felt like we smoked a pack of cigarettes - even though we dont smoke - and our lungs felt so heavy. But it was really fun and I think we are going to play several times on the trip.
Friday night, we got dinner at the Bridge cafe which is located on the first floor of our hotel and is cheap and a safe bet for good western food. Then, we all gathered in our room for a little pregame party. It was nice, but it is hard to fit everyone in one place. Everyone sits on the beds or our two chairs but its hard to include everyone in a central conversation. Not to mention, some people just come over and drink our alcohol! Haha, its not a big deal, but we are kinda the party room (I brought the iHome, an essential vacation item) and dont want to have to do it every time. Some of the guys went to Shanghi this weekend, so there is a few less of us going out. But getting cabs to take us all to the same place at the same time is difficult (plus, none of the Taxi drivers speak English!!).
We went to Mix and Vics, which are two dance clubs with a parking lot inbetween. Plus, they have an Outback Steakhouse right next to the Vics club. We eventually all found each other in Vics, which had a bunch of different rooms and dance floors with DJs for each room. Oh, and they play music which is ALL from the United States! We haven't heard one Chinese song in the club that we remember. Though it was no ones birthday, we partied like it was! haha we all jumped up on the stage and owned the dance floor. It's funny because our friend is from Hong Kong (Bryan) and he is sick at dancing. But everyone in Beijing is terrible! haha they are just awkward and don't move much, and a lot of the guys just stand around. JM and I are like jumping up and down the entire time and throwing people in the air like we just dont care :) But I went to Mix with a few other people in the night (yeah, had to pay cover twice) and had our first (but not last) encounter with shady guys. Basically we were all dancing, and some girl was like I think some guy just grabbed my ass. I blew it off, thinking that she just got bumped into.. it was packed inside and the dance floor was kinda dark. But then I watched a guy just like creepily try to grope her and another girl in front of me and I pushed him over and almost broke his hand with my elbow. We got out of that pit and went to a different place in the club where we met some funny Chinese guy who tried to imitate all of my dance moves... which is pretty much impossible. haha but he was trying to "Crip Walk" and it was super funny. We left around 2 oclock - obviously the last ones to leave in our group - and had no troubles driving home in the Taxi.
Posted by jfavorit at May 8, 2009 12:26 AM