- Cannot move into the new dorm until Monday (according to Mr. Liu) because some paperwork needs to be run by the engineering department. Have lost all hope of attaining a decent housing situation. The hellish concrete room is fine, for the moment, but... I miss hot showers, and would gladly pay someone for the privilege of letting me use theirs'.
- There are so many Koreans in Wudaokou! Apparently, if the kids do not score well enough on tests in school and cannot make it into a good university (either in Korea, the United States, or somewhere in Europe), their parents send them to China as a sort of punishment. Korean restaurants and dance clubs abound, as do Korean snack foods and Korean-targeted brands. Japanese culture is practically non-existent, though; there are a few eateries, a few fashion things, and that's about it (which is expected, given the political situation).
- Sanlitun sells sex, sports, and alcohol - else, businesses are guilty of a lot of false advertising.
- I'm contemplating a language exchange with one of the Fuwuyuans at Lush (Gary is really smart, and was a mathematics major at his old university before he had to drop out due to financial concerns). His dream is to finish school, and pursue an advanced degree in the United States - which means that he needs to improve his English and start studying for the GRE + GRE Subject Tests. Gary also apparently doesn't like Computer Science, which could be a problem, because the Chinese university's version of "Math" major is basically CAAM.
- Was planning on getting some Differential Equations and Multivariable Calculus books myself to puzzle through, anyway. We'll see how it goes.
- I... uh. Also might have purchased a Merriam Webster's Vocabulary Builder which doesn't seem to be doing much in the way of building my vocabulary so much as teaching me the historical context surrounding word origins. He can have that, too.
- Practicing Mandarin! Both in real life and via the workbooks. This, however, is not enough, and should start learning as many characters as possible. The bus system is good for this, because on the signs they list the Hanzi and Pinyin for each stop, but still. Not enough.
- JOBS: ... a few.
- Acting as a lecturer for a course at the high school affiliated with Capitol Normal University. Topic (fingers crossed): history and philosophy of science. Saturday mornings, 8-12:00 pm.
- English Language teacher for a bunch of IT executives at Tsinghua. Sundays, 1:30 - 4:30pm.
- English language teacher for kids ages 4 - 6 years old, at the Forestry University. Friday evenings, 6 - 8:00pm.
- English language tutor in college prep for a 14-year-old girl who wishes to study abroad in the United States, eventually. Sundays, 9 - 11am.
- And then there's the freelance stuff, which ranges from the HTML/copy editing work to the SPSS stuff to getting fMRIs done.
- Trying to get a position in a research lab, but that's going to be difficult.
- READING - been doing a lot of it.
- China's Megatrends
- Freakonomics
- Harvard Business Review of Doing Business in China
- Guns, Germs, and Steel (currently reading)
- American Gods (currently reading)
- general science articles
- school books
- The kids here are adorable! And so are the little college girls in my dormitory. They do EVERYTHING together - even holding purses, one at either strap. The affected childlike behavior gets old quickly, though. I'm sick of the giggling and the wide-eyes and the temper tantrum stomping in stores until cookies or cakes are bought for them.
- Speaking of which, Chinese bakeries are the most magical, delicious places in the history of the world and personally, I would be content to never eat anywhere else EVER AGAIN.
- LONELY
- There's no peace quite like being an island in a sea of happy, reveling internationals.
- ... Then again, no man is an island.
- GUITAR
- Haven't been practicing as much as I should. Need to get an instruction book, or copy one off the internet, but right now all I do is read sites and then go home and practice strumming.
- TRAVEL
- Haven't been out of Beijing. Fail.
Love you all <3
More later!
- Paige
# Guns, Germs, and Steel
ReplyDelete# American Gods
Both awesome books. And get this, Neil Gaiman is writing half of the upcoming season of Dr. Who as I understand it. I'm not sure if it's a permanent thing, but I'm willing to bet they will be great episodes.
Pajagranite,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like your life is an explosion of diversity and awesomeness at the moment. There is so much amazing geology around Beijing, and the Chinese gvt. maintains the geologic interest sites relatively well (word of mouth from Chinese TAMU geology friend, he says everything is better in China though so it might be suspect). I am definitely jealous, the most exposure I have to that side of the world is working on thrust fault data in Taiwan ):. Go there if you can, AAPG had a trip that went to Taiwan to check out the geology, I am so pissed I could not go on it (had to go to field camp instead). There’s this one picture where a fault has cut a high school track and completely uplifted and shifted a portion of the track (http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs142.snc4/36481_10100309498614174_8369388_65082447_4161008_n.jpg) <picture of trackness. They have not repaired the school because now it’s a geologic site of interest, so freakin cool. BTW, If ya have not read sandman(Gaiman's graphic novels) do so this instant. Conquer or convert as much as you can! For make benefit glorious nation of USA!
-AP