brappy!

I made a quick trip through Tiantan, arriving just after noon and I was to meet my class an hour later. I spotted them at 1:04, leaving our designated meeting place with only some four minutes' grace period ... in one of the world's most congested cities. My roommate, sans mobile, was nowhere to be found, and I was quite a ways behind my class. Later, I found out that I was the only one who was adventurous enough to go out early that morning and go through the temple. The rest had left by taxi, en masse, just around noon. How dull!

So, since only Rielly and I were left, they set out without us. I was somewhat annoyed that they only waited four minutes, and I was worried about Rielly. There was no logical reason why his quick errand would have taken past one o'clock, and I wanted to wait for him. Instead, one of our professors waited for him. It turned out, later, he had been taken for a ride by a taxi driver, who wanted to make some large urban circles on the way from Wangfujing to Tiantan North Gate (he left the taxi without paying, which in the world of taxi karma, makes up for when I got taken for a ride and paid 14RMB). He showed up about twenty minutes late.

While eating at a nearby restaurant, my stomach started to turn sour, fast! Every time my class eats as a group, my stomach hurts later and I'm starting to wonder if this is a psychosomatic reaction. I don't know if it is the restaurants, the refusal of my classmates to use serving chopsticks (instead, sticking the chopsticks that have been in their mouth into the entree we are sharing), or something else, but I have more stomach trouble when we eat as a group than any other times. I barely ate anything at this restaurant - my friends will know I wasn't feeling well because I actually turned down stinky tofu!

Another "dining as a group" phenomenon hit me - one of my classmates was being unbelievably rude and disrespectful to me in front of my class. On a previous occasion, this classmate said something unbelievably crass and disgusting to me at a dinner that was an official class meeting.

Of course, this comment was made, at my expense, during a break in the conversation, so it was quite loud. Upon telling others this story, even my tacky friends have been astounded someone said something so awful to me especially when it was unprovoked. This classmate has a serious problem understanding that making gross jokes is okay when you're out of your class, and hanging out in your dorm rooms, but they seem to forget - quite easily - that there is a line between professional space and private space. I'm older than most of my classmates, and I guess I've learned that lesson well - if you're friends with someone you work with, you can tell dirty jokes after work, but at work, or at say, a company party, you should be on good behavior...

This day, one of our classmates was talking about countries where you can't travel independently, or aren't allowed to go. I have done a lot of research on this, and often ask people about this, as it's kind of interesting. Like, Americans can't easily go to North Korea and certainly can't travel independently. Americans can travel independently in Taiwan, but mainland Chinese cannot, and only 1,000 a day are allowed to enter - as part of a group tour. Israelis can't enter Malaysia, and a host of other Islamic countries (but I'm not sure if Malaysians can go to Israel). The list goes on. I know what I'm talking about when it comes to stuff like this. Instead, I was dismissed out of hand, being told that "no, you're wrong. I'm sure you're wrong. You can travel anywhere on your own. I know it." After being mildly frustrated all day long, this sheer idiocy and extreme naïveté got under my skin. I think it's very bad form to insult other people in when you're in a class - even if that class is sitting around a table eating mediocre food.

One of my classmates asked me where the washroom was, and I got up to show her. Another one tagged along, as the thing was hard to find. When I went to wash my hands, I noticed that the soap that was missing, and all of the towels were gone. I had been to the bathroom some fifteen minutes before and there were tons of towels and soap dispensers at every sink. At that moment, I think I lost my mind. I was so frustrated. Nothing made sense. Why would there be soap dispensers fifteen minutes ago, and now they are all gone? I started hollering at the staff and finally, they brought out some soap and found some towels. I don't get it. Rielly was with me, and at that moment, I had to vent. He got quite an earful, actually.

When we went back to the table, my stomach started to hurt more, and the water I had ordered had disappeared. I sat down and inside of me, something gave up.
I was very frustrated with my classmates (and class) at that moment - everything we've been reading (reams of it) talks about the same subjects and covers similar ground. The guest speakers all have started to run together, and many of them say extremely similar things. My classmates are annoying to the extreme, and young for their ages... perhaps one of the biggest problems is that the ones that are natural leaders know nothing about China and Chinese culture, so they end up doing bizarre activities like making movies in our dorm hallway, or going to KTV and not singing. At least two of my gay classmates are smart enough to be having sex together, rather than hanging out with these clowns.

I'm lucky enough to have friends (and friends of friends) in Beijing to hang out with, so I'm not stuck in this cycle of dorkiness. Plus, I'm quite okay being on my own. I speak much better Chinese than I remember... Rielly and I have been bugging the fuwu around our dorm, asking them silly questions and telling them fake names we made up in Chinese (his name is "Wild Man!") or, even better, telling people carrying around an external hard drive that "your new mobile phone looks really good. You must be excited! Looks great!"

Rielly and I left the restaurant by taxi and promptly got stuck in traffic. Eventually, the driver took us to a subway station. We worked off our irritation by taking pictures in the subway and posing with bemused locals while on the No. 2 line. Interacting with everyday people is probably the most uplifting part of being here. Frequently, by saying hi to a local, someone with a scowl will think for a minute, stop scowling and wave to us, saying hello back. Even better is yelling "jia you!" (keep it up!) to someone working hard or pedaling a bicycle in the rain. They seem to like that a lot. Rielly almost caused an accident when he said that to someone on a bike who missed his turn while laughing at us and nearly hit a taxi.