Don't trust Fodors.

Day Two.

We got a lot accomplished on the second day. We took the metro for the first time since it was conveniently located just outside our hotel. We explored the Forbidden City, ate another local meal, walked through Tiananmen Square, saw (the outside of) Mao's Tomb and went to the main Beijing Olympics store.

Two highlights of the day-- our wonderful tour guide at the Forbidden City and our terrible attempt at finding our Fodors-recommended restaurant.

1. After Mom stood in line to get tickets into the Forbidden City (palace area for the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties), we were approached by an older woman who offered to give a tour. "Forbidden City verrry large. I show you most important places. Give good information. Only 180RMB... two hours." Somehow we accepted her offer, so she hopped in line, bought her ticket and we were off! She may have been in her 60s, but as my mom liked to say, "She was sturdy!" Aka, we spent most of the time trying to keep up with her fast little legs. It was pretty easy to do because she had a lilac bonnet-thing on and was constantly waving her arms in the air to direct us to the next point of interest. She told us her name a couple of times, but none of us could remember or pronounce it. In writing, I'll just refer to her as Lu Lu. I think it fits.

Important things to note in the picture below:

• The building in the background is being renovated for the Olympics-- just like everything else in town. While they had already updated a few other portions of the Forbidden City, it looked like they had a lot of work to finish. George loved to comment on how Beijing wasn't going to be ready. We laughed about it, but he's probably right.
• Lu Lu's arm is in the air. Again, waving.
• I have a gold butterfly clip in my hair because I answered one of Lu Lu's trivia questions. In her bag, she carried these prizes and would reward us for answering questions about certain things on the grounds. When we got the questions right, she'd say "Yeeessssss, cleva girl!" I think she even managed to rub Jen's hair when she won a butterfly. Strange, but hilarious! Oh, Lu Lu.
• In the second one you can see George in the background behind Jen. He's still bummed because he hadn't answered a question correctly. Not to worry-- we all got butterflies. George wore his the entire day.
  

Meanwhile, while our little foursome was on a lovely tour with Lu Lu, there were large Asian tour groups all over the place! You could tell because they'd all wear matching colored hats and travel in packs around a tall flag.

I think these two were really enjoying their tour-- especially the one on the right. Nike, just remember that you'll need my permission before using these pictures in your next ad. Thanks.

Other pictures from our time at the Forbidden City and in Tiananmen Square:

Newly renovated detail work and painting. Interesting to note that the columns (and other fixtures) in the Forbidden City are solid wood, not stone. The biggest concern was the place catching fire.
More toilet humor. Four stars!
What's a vacation without a picture of some random flowers. These were in the palace gardens.
We love Mao-- at least in this picture. He's actually looking at the camera too.

2. The other memorable part of our day was the absolutely horrible time we had trying to get to the restaurant. The concierge said, "Oh! Everyone knows that place." Yeah right. I think we had some information written in Chinese, but not enough to get us where we needed to go. But before that, we had to get a cab. Four taxis pulled up to the hotel and four times we were turned down because the fare was going to be too low. Supposedly the restaurant was only a 15-minute walk (yeah right). When we got a cab (only upon flashing a 20RMB bill yelling "We'll pay you more!!"), we got stuck in traffic. It was so bad that our cab driver indicated we should get out mid-way, walk over a pedestrian bridge and we'd find it on the other side of the road. It should be noted that all of that was interpreted through inaccurate pointing and gestures. His directions couldn't have been more wrong. Turns out, our restaurant was located in a small alley tucked away behind the main street of bars and restaurants. We must have spent an hour trying to get there. After finding a bartender in another restaurant that spoke English, he called the restaurant and got good directions. Needless to say there were lots of "F* Fodors" and "Worst cab driver EVER!" and "Have the people from Fodors ever BEEN to China?!" comments before we actually found the place.

The good news was that the food was wonderful! I had appetizer of brie-filled spring rolls with a roasted pepper sauce and delicious lamb chops for dinner. For the first time, Jen and I got to join in on a wonderful bottle of wine. We left full and happy.

Lesson of the night: Don't trust Fodors and don't leave your hotel without a phone number and everything written in Chinese. Trust Lu Lu.

Beijing... No shit.

The week before Jen and I left for Beijing, we were on totally different schedules. She was crazy-busy with school and silly presentations (working on a musical about McDonald's for her musical theater class...ha!) and I was... well, not doing much. I'd pretend to be busy, but mostly I just kept thinking about vacation. Everytime I talked to my mom on the phone, we'd try and talk about other things but would always revert to the I-can't-wait-to-see-you-in-Beijing topic. And so it began...


We left early Wednesday morning. I overslept by an hour. Anyone surprised? Our DragonAir flight was nearly full. We didn't care because we got to eat the pork surprise on our flight. Somehow the "surprise" part was pretty tasty. Salty, but edible. The flight was 3-1/2 hours, so they showed a movie-- some kind of adult, sexy animated thing. Since I didn't plug my headphones in, I'd look up at it from time to time. I figured that kind of stuff would have been banned by the Chinese government. Guess not..

When we pulled up the hotel, Jen and I were astounded! We were going to live like "real people" in a place that had a real lobby, hotel bar, turn-down service and a bathtub! I decided that one of the best parts about our spring break was that it truly was a break from our normal low-budget traveling style. We met Mom and George in the bar (happily) and started to plan the rest of our sightseeing. The first observation was that my mom was drinking hot tea and George was drinking a Tsing Tao-- neither of them with their normal vodka-soda lime/no-lime combo. Turns out, ordering a vodka-soda (or "woodka with club soda... soda water... with gas... woodka... yes?! Ok.") is much more complicated in Beijing. Welcome to China!

Our first night we ate at the Li Qun Roast Duck Restaurant. It was in a desolate alley just off one of the main boulevards. Even our cab driver seemed a little nervous as to how to direct us to the restaurant. Turns out, we just had to follow the painted signs. Here, ducky ducky!

Luckily, we had a reservation because the restaurant, albeit small, was packed! The look on George's face was pretty priceless when we walked in. The night before we arrived, apparently the two of them had a pretty bad local restaurant experience. I think George was ready for another disaster.
While we waited, we got to look at all of the "famous celebrities" that have graced Li Qun with their appearance. The celebrities consisted of random diplomats and local pop stars. We tried to pretend we were just as famous, so we posed-- like the locals do.

Of course, we went to Li Qun to order Peking Duck... and it was delicious. It came with these super thin pancakes. I thought it was appropriate to play with my food.

Midway through dinner, Jen went to the bathroom. She came back laughing and said, "You have to see the bathroom! I'm going back just to take a picture." I assumed the worst... but it was better than I could have imagined. Yes, it was a squatter. What made it so funny was that right above the toilet two words were painted on the wall in what looked like red finger nail polish. It simply said, "No shit." Looking down at the toilet you could see why. There was a saucer-sized grate over the toilet drain with holes the size of small peas. No poo was getting past that thing.

I think we're obsessed with bathrooms. Squatters, western toilets, funny signs, whatever. Then again, my roommates and I in Austin seem to always find poo a hilarious topic of conversation. That's another story. After a few laughs and picture with the owner of the restaurant, we went back to the hotel. The next day was going to be a long one, so we went to bed early. So00 good!... phrase of the week!

Thursday is SO the new Friday.

I didn't realize until today that the Chinese characters I posted earlier probably didn't show up on your computer, like they did on mine. All of the keyboards here are "normal" but there are ways to insert characters as regular text. I'll have to figure out a way to post characters you can "read".

I don't have much to report. This week I felt a lot like Steven usually feels at UT-- everyone's frantically running around trying to study and complete assignments. Meanwhile, he's looking around saying, "Is this 'hell week'? I have nothing due." I had two assignments due today, but I have nothing due through spring break. The most stressful thing I've done this week was unrelated to school. Oh wait, you probably read the previous post.

The weather here is increasingly fabulous. Today I sat outside and had lunch with Jen. It's about 75 here and sunny. It's perhaps more accurate to say 75 and hazy. Even without a cloud in the sky, it's not clear like Austin. Then again, there aren't 7 million people in Austin.

A handful of people are going out tonight, but I'm considering postponing the festivities until Friday. Lisa (Michigan engineering) is turning 20 on Saturday, so a bunch of people are celebrating the end of "hell week" and the start of Lisa's birthday on Friday. One thing to note... you would never think Lisa was 19! She carries herself like some of the 23-year-olds around here. I'm always impressed. I can't imagine being here even two years ago. Then again, how in the world am I turning 22 this year?!

Visa Day

Today was Visa Day. For those of you "Westerners" (haha) who don't know, you have to have a separate visa to enter China-- whether it be from the US, Ghana or Hong Kong. Doesn't matter. Ok, well, it does matter. Because if you're from the United States, you get to pay an extremely inflated fee of $1020HK... or $130US. The new mandate, which went into effect on January 20th, states that this fee applies to all US citizen visas no matter how long your stay. Before then, an American would pay a different fee if he/she was applying for a single, double or multiple entry visa (all with different expiration dates)... just like everyone else.

I don't know why it was so irritating. Oh, wait. Maybe it was the hour long line I stood in to get the freakin building. Or maybe it was the 30 minutes it took me to find the visa office once I got to Wan Chai. Or maybe it was the people in front of me who couldn't pass through the metal detector... conveniently forgetting that their KEYS were in their pockets. Hello?!!!!

The worst part might be that I have to go BACK to the visa office to pick up my passport and documentation. Stupid system. Nice bathrooms and waiting area, though.

The First Ever... Top 6 List

The TOP 6 reasons Monday, March 10th was wonderful*...

6. This morning I upgraded from a small to a LARGE non-fat latte and it was still only US$2.00!
5. I went to Taste, my favorite grocery store in Hang Hau. I want to live in the produce section.
4. I got more pictures taken for my Chinese visa. Once again, I couldn't smile. Therefore, they're horrible! The horrendousness of them was enough for a solid 3-minute laugh.
3. I got an 91 on my US-China Relations midterm at 30% of my course grade. (Oh, and it was the highest grade in the class.)
2. Did you read the previous post?
1. Steven wrote an amazingly hilarious, yet wonderful, article online. I'm not one to wave the mushy love banner around (if such a thing exists), but you can read it for yourself at his website, www.myballpointisbroken.com**

*I could have come up with four more reasons, but that would be too conventional. Plus, I have a paper to write.

**Note, if you read the article and think, "Whoa! He's serious about her." Don't panic; just smile. And remember, my fortune teller at Man Mo Temple said I can't get married this year. And by this year, she probably meant "until you're 30."

Beautiful screaming?!

Today was the first time I got to talk to Steven, Gerrie, Alyssa and Kristin all at once!! Steven and Justin (and a few others) were at 907 watching some ridiculous dance movie. As soon as they answered the phone, all I could hear was screaming... but it was the best sound in the world! I started laughing so hard I had to walk out of the computer lab. I forgot that the "chanting" was about to begin in the atrium, so I had to finish our hilarious conversation in the lab. Everyone hated me for about 10 minutes, but I didn't care.

I miss them so much! On the outside, my friends may look like the most put-together, ambitious people you've ever met. On the inside, they're a bunch of nut-jobs. Funny ones. And I miss that. Let's not even mention that Kristin is going to be in Paris/Houston all summer... so I may not see her for a verrrrry long time. Too long if you ask me.

Anyone want to fund my return flight through Paris?

Kristin also reminded me that I don't know a lick of Mandarin or Cantonese. I don't even know how to say 'hello' (exept when talking on the phone... that sounds something like why'EE). Whatever-- it's a bad sign.

Ok, so I just looked it up. Hello is 你好 in traditional Chinese. Anyone know how to pronounce that?

Jen's Home!

So, my UST-life is complete now that Jen has returned from the "island side." She did say that the hotel was really nice, and that it was refreshing to return every night after housekeeping cleaned up the room. I know that deep down she meant, "I miss sleeping across our tiny room from you even though it's dirty and my mattress is uncomfortable." Steve is great, but I know she missed me.

I spent part of the afternoon at the coffee shop and part of the evening in the library. I wasn't by myself in the library this time. I sat across from Joe, a really nice guy from Michigan. He's also having to adjust to being one of the only black guys on campus. If I'm ever in the mood to vent about difficulties in Hong Kong, he's the guy I talk to. Hilarious!

Jen and I ate at our current favorite dinner spot, LG1 (remember the crazy dim sum place?). Matt and Kaz showed up as we were finishing, so we stayed while they downed some fried rice and chicken curry. I'm meeting them in a little while to watch "Into the Wild."

I just looked at the clock on my computer and it's only showing a 13-hour time difference. I'm guessing that means it's daylight savings time!? Wake up everyone!

Saturday in the Bay

I think one of the better things about Saturdays is that the boats from Sai Kung sail our direction. This morning was no exception. I stepped out of my room and got to see this!

LKFun!

I think I've mentioned before that Lan Kwai Fong, or LKF, is the area on Hong Kong island where mostly Westerners go to drink and party the weekend away. Yesterday, after spending the afternoon pre-sightseeing, I met up with a bunch of the UST kids (and Steve) for drinks and dancing. But before that...

I left UST around 3:00 for Central. I wanted to "pre-sightsee" before my parents get here in two weeks. They only have a few days to see a lot of the things it has taken me over a month to see, so I want to narrow down the list of must-see stops. The first was going to one of the International Finance buildings (IFC2) on Hong Kong Island. All of the travel books mention they have a nice 55th story viewing area that's open to the public on weekdays. Jen and I tried going a few weeks ago, but didn't realize they would be closed on Saturdays. Since they close before 6pm, I went there first. I walked up to the main concierge desk and asked how to get to the viewing area. They sent me downstairs and around the corner to another desk. When I got to that desk, they directed me to another hallway. After the third concierge desk, I finally got a visitors pass to get to the elevators. It didn't seem crowded, so I was really excited. When I got to the top, they directed me to the set of windows on the right. I walked into the "visitors room" which was more like a museum exhibit on Hong Kong finance that happened to have windows... on the 55th floor. I looked out the windows for about 5 minutes, and that's about it. The worst part was that the viewing area was directed at the island and not at the harbor or the Kowloon side. When I tried to walk to the other side of the floor (past the visitors' elevators), they immediately stopped me and said that wasn't allowed. I tried to play it off like I was simply going to the ladies' room, but they said I needed to use another facility. Bah humbug. Visiting the IFC2 was a waste of time. Check! Pre-sightseeing mission accomplished. Mom and George, I'm not taking you there.

After that, I walked through some more ritzy shopping areas to catch the Peak Tram to Victoria Peak. On my way, I walked through an interesting sculpture plaza. What's interesting is that Hong Kong doesn't seem too big on art. Anyway, it was also the first time I'd seen fat people in Hong Kong.

Well, turns out the Peak Tram wasn't operating. We piled on a bus and drove up instead. How the bus navigated the narrow winding street toward the top of Victoria Peak is beyond me. I planned this part really well though. There's a big debate (when I say 'big' I just mean 'trivial') about whether it's better to see the skyline of Hong Kong during the day or night. So my big decision-- go before sunset, have a cocktail while it's getting dark, and see the skyline at night. Genius! The Hong Kong Tourism Board should hire me. The nice thing about Victoria Peak is that there's a mini-mall up there now. There's a Park 'N' Shop (groceries?), Starbucks (of course), Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant (what?), souvenir shops and plenty of restaurants. One of the restaurants on every best-picks list is Cafe Deco because of the great views and good food, albeit not cheap. It's widely known that you need a reservation for dinner. I got there and when I explained I was just going to order a glass of wine and maybe an appetizer, the hostess seated me at a table with a reserved sign. She said, "This table isn't booked until 7:30. You can sit here." It was a perfect view right next to the floor-to-ceiling windows. I had nearly an hour to myself to watch the sun go down, drink wine and have a small appetizer of olives and Mediterranean dips. Mom and George, if we can go back, it'd be a nice treat!

Note: In the center of this picture you can see the IFC building lit up extending just above another building in the foreground. You can imagine how nice it should have been to get a good view of the city. Too bad it wasn't.

After dinner, I made my way back to Central to relax, walk around and shop until everyone got to LKF. I got there a little early, so I walked up and down the main drag to people-watch. I waited at an intersection and watched this hilarious Asian man promote his restaurant, Good Luck Thai (also supposed to be amazing). His method of advertising was to cause big scenes in the street. For example, he noticed that a European man was hitting on two Asian girls. The man asked them to pose for a somewhat seductive picture and afterward suggested that they meet up later that night. As soon as the girls nodded (the ok-but-yeah-right kind of nod) and walked away, the Good Luck Thai guy ran up behind the European and shouted, "Hey man! That's my daughter! Don't talk to her like that!" He proceeded to make the guy stumble for words before he exclaimed, "Ohhhh just kiiiiddding. You hungry? Come eat Thai food!!" and handed him a menu. It was hysterical! He got everyone's attention, but I don't think anyone went inside.

After maneuvering through the crowds (see picture below), I finally met up with the UST exchange students at Club 9. The cover was supposed to be $120HK with "free" drinks until 1am, but for some reason last night it was $180HK ($23US). Despite that it turned out to be a great night. But maybe that's because it was 11:45 and everyone was trying to down their money's worth of drinks before 1am. We didn't get home until 4:15 and by that time, I was so exhausted. Kat, I give you props for surviving the club scene in Spain, because even 4am is waaaayyy past my bedtime.


If going to LKF is that much fun every time, I'd go more often!

MARK251

Ok, so it's my turn to brag. We had a case due in B2B today. It was an old Harvard Business Review case from the 80s about pricing strategy in the steel strapping industry. Combine the topic with 13 pages of background, company reports and pricing statistics, and you've got hours and hours of "excitement." Ok, maybe it wasn't exciting. It was just long. I started working on it on Monday, so I had plenty of time to think through the subtleties. The assignment was to decide how the company should adjust product pricing based on the increased cost of steel. Today before we started the discussion, he drew a 2x2 chart on the whiteboard and asked everyone to come up one-by-one to generally categorize their recommended strategy. I was the only one in my entire class and answered in the upper right quadrant-- meaning I was either going to be arguably correct or embarrassingly off-target. Turns out, not only was my strategy "correct" (as far as cases go), the professor said it was the only time anyone had answered that way in the 5 years he'd assigned the case. It was a somewhat meaningless assignment, but it made me feel fantastic!

The rest of the day kind of went downhill. I had to complete a marketing research study in the afternoon. I have no idea what I was being surveyed on, but we watched brief clips of "Bullitt," "Whalerider," and "Sophie's Choice." After that, I had another hour of class and finished the day in the library. For dinner I had my first experience with XO sauce. I'd give it an 7 out of 10.

Today I found out that more people are running in the marathon and half marathon on the Great Wall in May. How awesome is that?! If I had the motivation to run that far, maybe I'd join them. Or maybe they should just have an elliptical machine competition on the Great Wall. Then I'd for sure go.

Jen's Steve

Jen's boyfriend, Steve, is in town. He flew in from Boston on Saturday evening, so I hadn't seen much of either of them until today. I finally met him this morning when they came back to the room at 8am. My alarm went off at 7:45, but I ignored it and went back to sleep. Before too long, I hear a key in the door and muffled voices on the other side. I immediately pretend to be awake. In fact, as soon as they walk in, I exclaim, "Hey Steve! You all have perfect timing. My alarm JUST went off." They reply, "Oh good," and Jen starts gathering her books for her long day of class. Before I try to sit up, I realize that I went to bed without pants on. I can't exactly be a good hostess for Steve, but I think I played it off well by lazily stretching and conversing from under my covers. It was a funny morning.

My two classes today were fine. Women's Movement is increasingly terrible. Asking questions in class only makes the locals roll their eyes. Oh well. Tonight Steve came back to campus from a day of exploring and met us for dinner at, where else, Uni-Bar. He got to have a few beers and Jen and I stuck with the Happy Hour 2-for-1 wine special.

And now we're back in the room. Jen is behind me re-packing her bag for tonight through Thursday. You know what that means?!!

I get to sleep without pants again tonight.

Blah, blah, school, blah.

Today I took my second midterm at UST in US-China Relations (with the prof that asked us to wear sick-masks... that class). After talking to everyone after class, I feel pretty good about how I did. I'm glad it's over though. My first midterm was in Brand Management last Wednesday. Today in class the professor asked how I think I did. My response, "I'm upset I missed class before the exam, but I wouldn't have traded it for Thailand." She laughed and agreed.

Tomorrow in my Women's Movement tutorial, we'll be discussing the movie "Hua Mulan" or the original Chinese inspiration for Disney's "Mulan." I watched it last week with Jen, and it was funnier than it should have been-- singing, live actors, subtitles, plot, etc. All of the songs sounded the same, and Mulan's character was quite obviously female. She may have had no breasts, but that was the only "masculine" thing about her. Other than the cultural differences in the film, we just couldn't figure out the casting.

I just finished a group meeting with Crystal, my partner in B2B Marketing. We were assigned partners, but I got extremely lucky-- Crystal works her ass off. We meet outside class once a week to make our decisions for the assigned simulation game. The simulation game (Industrat, developed by INSEAD) gives us about 35 pages of charts, graphs, perceptual maps, and survey data to interpret and formulate the next round's decisions. Sounds fun right? Each week she comes with pages of analysis; she's never unprepared. AND her English is great! That class would be a nightmare if it wasn't for her.

After tomorrow, I only have three more assignments due before Spring Break... woo hoo! Then it's family time in Beijing and planning the last few trips before I go home. FYI: I don't have Asian relatives; my parents will be meeting me there.

I can't believe I'm approaching the half-way mark of the semester. Can I start the margarita countdown clock?