quick update

So I've arrived safely in Beijing (I've been here for two days now) -- still kind of jetlaggy but trying hard to blend in with the locals. I've gotten a local haircut (it's kind of frightening -- picture post to follow once I figure out how to set up an internet connection in my room instead of having to visit internet cafes), a local bike, opened a local bank account, acquired a local car, and been eating locally grown and cooked food three meals a day (so far so good on the dysentary watch). Beijing University has a beautiful campus and I promise to post pictures of the campus and of my relatives' apartment (which is surprisingly spacious and comfortable) followed by photos of just everyday life here as soon as I set up the aforementioned internet account. The kids are nice, the food is...wonderful (more later), the weather is hot, the television is amusing, the initial euphoria of arriving in Beijing has not worn off yet.

Anyway, I can't post long as it costs 0.50 RMB/minute here and there's a queue for the internet cafe computers that goes outside the door.

Talk to you soon (it's so strange seeing all the features of blogger written in hanzi -- weird but cool).

very useful financial advice (imho)

Advice to All You Graduates: Let's Start With That Daily Latte . . . - New York Times

beautiful beijing

stock response

to the fact that my lit/hum professor still has not deigned to post my second semester grade
to my father's latest litany of my character and physical faults
to the Ridgewood Endocrinologist Association's delayed response to my blood test results

I say, This Is Bullshit.

ah, new jersey

When it's pouring out and the inhabitants of my house are displaying varying degrees of cabin fever (my sister practiced the entire War of 1812 Overture drum part in the living room while Kevin whistled an accompaniment), what can a Jersey girl do but flee to the one haven available to her? No, not the Pine Barrens, but instead the shopping mall. The only problem is that everyone else also has this same train of thought and also flees to that air-conditioned nirvana -- creating a overly crowded and oppressive atmosphere throughout the would-be haven.

Therefore I propose that someone think of building huge playground-like structures for teenagers -- a sort of glorified hamster wheel for those young adults
with lots of energy but not lots of cash to spend. I'm too disillusioned and cynical to spend my afternoon in a mall but I'm also too antsy to just sit at home and read for days on end.

forecast of cloudy with a chance of sun

It's been raining for days now and when it isn't raining, it's humid. I was amusing myself with a list of things that I'll miss about the States (TLC, libraries with english books, expansive and uncrowded spaces, readily available hair products, deodorant) and was just about to add 'torrential rain' to the list when I happened upon this tasty bit of information:

"Beijing during the summer has what experts call 'continental monsoon' weather meaning that it experiences extreme humidity and heavy bouts of rain throughout the summer season.'

Well, at least the water booties will be put to liberal use.

Also, a pair of mallard ducks ate many of our koi. In China we eat many ducks. This is what we call poetic irony. (I'm looking at you Mr. and Mrs. Flat-Bill)

On an entirely unrelated note -- Has anyone else heard that Barack Obama has not not decided to run for President in 2008? (He's not sure yet but he hasn't ruled out the possibility.) Because I'm not not excited about that information ^^.

an adventure

My friend and I went semi-hiking (meaning in the woods with the shoes and the mentality but without the pack and the endurance) today and, on our second loop around the lake, we encountered a red sniper turtle with a body the size of a CD-ROM. Since we are rational, law-abiding people who make sensible choices, we decided to pick it up and hike it back up to her car. Then we brought it to my house and placed it in my pond.

I thought that my parents, especially my dad, would be thrilled. Here we had found a turtle almost identical to the one in our kitchen but ten times bigger! My dad was the one who had brought home Crash (Fancy-Pants) and I felt proud of finding a bigger, better version. Once released, Chester (as we had named it) swam energetically around my little pond, splashing under the waterfall and frolicking with the nine koi fish (each one-foot long).

However my dad was not pleased. He claimed that one of the koi had a chunk missing from its back that had been caused by Chester. However I countered that Chester had just entered the pond and the wound on the fish was an old one. Also, Chester was not a snapping turtle but instead a variant of a box turtle and therefore would not attack fish.

...Or so I thought. After my disagreement with my dad (it's a long story but he's been wrong 2 out of the 3 times he's yelled at me over the past 24 hours and that was why I was so adamant about my being right), I decided to google the phrase 'turtles koi' to see whether or not turtles and koi are unable to coinhabit a pond. Turns out that all turtles are fish-eaters, whether they be snapping turtles or no. One particularly graphic website even described how a medium-sized turtle (a la Chester) would attack large fish (a la the koi) stealthily, bite by bite, until one day it would rip off the fish's face and wait until the fish bled to death. This same website offered an array of traps for one's turtle problem but the traps looked needlessly elaborate, took a long time to work, and were also very expensive.

But I knew that the last thing my dad wanted to see (and the last thing I wanted him to see) was one of his prized koi floating belly-up sans face. Add to that the fact that each one of those purebred beauties cost about as much as a year's worth of college textbooks and I knew that I had to act fast.

After a few fruitless attempts using my arms in the pond, I decided to take drastic measures. I changed into an old one-piece suit, my water booties, and a pair of blue plastic goggles. Then I prayed a few times before stepping onto the algae-coated bottom of the pond. The water rose to my hips but I still could not access the turtle as it had darted underneath a big rock slab that lay across one corner of the pond. I knew what I had to do but the thought of dipping my face and hair into the slimy pondwater was an unappetizing one.

Two things motivated me to continue at this point -- the thought of the look on my father's face upon seeing me, water booties goggles and all, holding aloft the captive turtle and also the thought of what a great story this would make (if successful). So I held my breath, dove under the rock and emerged victorious.

Right now Chester is rummaging about the leafage near the stream out back and I am freshly showered and feeling quite triumphant.

peace, annie ^^