Updates from the road! Well, I don’t mean that I’m traveling right now- I mean biking updates! I sort of wonder whether I should create a new category called ‘biking’, since all my ‘journal posts’ are about biking now =\. Oh wells.

I don’t know if you remember my previous post about my cycling fall in the rain, but here’s a picture that I dug up- I needed to ice my wrist, but I had no ice packs, so I used the only other frozen item that I could find in my fridge… mandu dumplings! =)

Sometimes I take random bikes through the university campuses- I actually wanted to take a look around the 北京大学 (Peking University) campus, but they were actually checking for student IDs at the front gate! Boo! This picture below is from the 清华大学 campus.

This guy was styling with his modified cart- I don’t think that it was raining actually; it was just during the really hot and humid week in Beijing. I wish I had one of those on the back of my fixie- though, I don’t think it’d really help much with aerodynamics…

When I was putting my bike together I decided to opt for the metal/plastic toe-cages, because they were the cheapest pedal options. I guess you get what you pay for. My cage broke sometime early last month. I only recently made it down to the Natooke shop to get another set of all-metal pedals and cages.

When I was at the shop, I saw this BEAUTIFUL bike. But I’d be so scared to ride this baby though- I wouldn’t want to get it dirty. Definitely not a bike for the Beijing streets =p.

I was over in the 中关村 computer district, and there were these women just standing around asking if you wanted to purchase receipts: “发票, 发票, 发票你要吗?” It was a really strange thing to see- but I guess that’s how we do in China! [Basically, they're selling receipts because some companies will reimburse you for any computer purchases that you make- I suppose if you purchase some electronics from one of the more 'shady' stores, they might not offer a receipt]

I’ve got some other post ideas in the cooker, so hopefully you’ll see some other interesting aspects of Beijing on my blog soon!

Welcome to another delayed post! The late update (when are my updates not late?) comes because I was helping out with a week-long English Camp for kids in July, spanning from the 19th to the 23rd- and I usually don’t get around to updating until I really feel like I need to make a post. It was a pretty crazy camp, especially since I haven’t really worked with kids before- not to mention that I ended up with a group of 10 munchkins who were only 5-7 years old.

But, overall, it was an awesome experience- though, definitely very tiring. The programs only ran for half days, from 9am-12pm, but I was already exhausted by the end of the day’s program. [I have no idea how full-time teachers do it!] All in all, I had a great time with my group of kids, and I think I’ve picked up some good ideas on how to keep kids entertained now, if ever such a situation arises in the future.

Photo dump!

Story time! I miss seeing those huge books with ginormous text =)

Skit time! “Stone Soup”- Do any of you guys remember that story? Makes me hungry thinking about it

I realized, that coloring is the best activity- ever. Anything to keep the kids occupied, and sitting in one location is good =) Game time was ridiculously crazy. We had the second youngest group of kids, and during this time, our kids would just run around and not really care about the rules at all- they just wanted to have fun. Craziness. Pure chaos.

I was very proud of my drawing. Yeah- who knew I was such an artist? =p My group was called the Yellow Lions! “ROOOAR!”

Setting up the day’s activities with their folders. We had assigned seating- it was necessary to separate the really hyper-active kids =p

As you can see, our awesome color-pencil layout would be pretty much annihilated =)

Giselle was adorable- she would run up behind me during story times and hug me.

Stone was one of the crazy little munchkins in the group- belly rubs really calms this little energy-ball down tho =)

Susan always stuck by my side and would run to sit in my lap whenever we would sit down on the floor.

Well- end post. Not much else to write here. I have another update in the writings about my recent biking trips around Beijing.

Till then.

-Duncan

Finally another update- mostly because now I’m grounded and off my bike for a while after taking a nasty fall two days ago during a huge rain storm here in Beijing. I decided that it would be a clever move to practice my skid-stopping in the rain since the roads would be a bit easier to skid on; I just didn’t realize how slippery the roads had gotten though, and one of my attempted skids resulted in my back wheel kicking out to the side, which sent me to the ground on my left arm (which was actually quite fortunate, since that took most of the shock). Somehow I also landed on my right wrist- which I’d already been having problems with, and I started to feel a dull pain and a loss of movement in the joint.

Here’s a short clip of the rain storm on Friday- it was pouring down.

The aftermath of my arm.

Initially I thought that it was just a sprain, but the first night I couldn’t find a good resting position for my wrist that wouldn’t hurt, and the next morning I felt stiffness in my fingers- reason enough to want to get an X-Ray (X-光 X-guang1 as I learned to say in Chinese; also, 扭伤 niu3shang1 is also how you say, sprain, in Chinese) of my wrist. I was trying to decide whether to go to a local clinic/hospital, knowing that the X-Ray and consultation fees would be a lot cheaper there, but then figured that I would try to claim the checkup fees anyways, so I decided that I’d be a spoiled expat and headed over to Visa Clinic (which I assumed would be cheaper than going to Beijing United Family Hospital). Long story short, I ended up not having to get an X-Ray, and the doc diagnosed it as just a sprain. He prescribed me a  bag of pain killers and sleep aids, but I haven’t taken any yet. I don’t really like the idea of popping pain meds- I’ll stay off the narcotics until I’m really writhing in pain.

Anyhow, the actual reason for the lack of updates is because I’ve started up my daily classes at 1on1Mandarin so my schedule’s gotten quite a bit tighter. But, apart from that update- here’s a random dump of images from the past few weeks in Beijng.

I got a printer from Phebe’s friend. It’s missing a power cord, but whatevs. I’ll pick one up soon. I thought it would be post-worthy because I was trying to figure out how to bring it back to my apartment, and, well, good thing I got the Chrome citizen-sized messenger bag, which actually fit the printer! Plus 1 for biking with a printer in your bag!

The previous trip to the computer-district in 中关村 to look for the underground Apple distributor- speaking of which, that reminds me that I need to follow up with them. They were supposed to call me back about the casing for my MacBook Pro 15″.

I was a bit nervous going in here because my local friend had advised me not to leave my MacBook Pro overnight for any repairs, and that I should even ask to watch the repair, lest I run the possibility of having parts stolen/swapped out in my Mac.

I thought it was pretty amusing to see iPads on sale here. They’re currently not being sold in the official Apple Beijing store yet.

Beijing is a biker’s city…

And to close this post-
This delivery guy didn’t have an apartment number to deliver to (actually, my apartment complex doesn’t have assigned unit numbers for each apartment), so he just started yelling the person’s name. It’s a pretty tight knit community though- some of the neighbors downstairs started to direct the delivery guy where to find that person. China is an interesting place… =p

-Duncan

Just writing a quick update to share the misfortune that I’ve been having lately. Somehow my personal belongings have just been breaking. Argh-

//Update – June 29 2010: Well it seems like someone else is having the same problem with the MacBook Pro Unibody build quality. I found this ad on eBay as I was looking for a broken MacBook Pro to purchase so that I could switch out my old casing. This guy’s MacBook Pro frame snapped in exactly the same spot, which also resulted in the cracking of his screen. It definitely doesn’t reassure me of Apple’s products, especially in light of all the issues that recent iPhone 4 owners have been experiencing with the phone.

//EndUpdate

Yes, this is my MacBook Pro. I’ve been having problems with this Mac since I first left the States. The night before I left for China, I dropped my Mac from my backpack which I’d forgotten to zip up. There wasn’t too much serious damage- fortunately I had a solid-state HDD so there was no HDD damage, but I did end up with a huge dent that warped the Ethernet port (but who uses a wired connection these days anyhow huh? =p) The fall did, however, warp the screen lid a bit, and I also assume that it also weakened the aluminum frame that houses the LCD screen- because this aluminum frame ended up snapping earlier this month. The snapped bottom part of the frame would push out the front glass covering the LCD whenever I would open the Mac. I’ve been managing to carefully hold the glass down while opening up my Mac, but the glass finally gave way and cracked. It’s still intact- but I have an awesome crack going across my monitor; yay.

I called into the Apple store here in Beijing and they won’t just replace the casing for me. They say it’s only possible for me to replace the whole monitor, which will cost a whopping 6,000RMB; yeah, I don’t have the cash for that at the moment. I’ll just have to keep using my beautiful cracked screen until I finish studying and get a source of income again.
In the mean time, I am looking around on the forums for water-damaged broken MacBook Pros because all the guts of my computer are still alive and kicking- in fact, I checked some of the MacBook Pros for sale on the forums and my specs are still a lot better than what’s on the market- this Mac is still a beast =) I know it’s possible to just change out the casing- there are even videos on YouTube giving instructions on how to do take a Mac apart and switch out parts! I love YouTube =)

Well, that’s my Mac. Next up? My bike…
No, I didn’t get into an accident or anything. I’m fine. Basically, my seat would keep gradually getting lower and lower and I was getting really frustrated. Federico (you can YouTube him “Federico Moro juggling” and you’ll see some of his stuff. It’s pretty impressive!), the guy who put my bike together, told me not to tighten the bolt too much. Well, I didn’t listen and I decided to give the bolt an extra ‘wrench’ to make sure that the seat-post would stay in place- Bad idea! I ended up messing up the bolt. I ended up having to walk my bike out to look for a local shop with a saw and get the bolt sawed off. It was pretty amusing seeing people walking by looking at two guys sawing at a pretty bike. Yeah… lol.

Well, that’s the adventure for today- I ended up dropping by the Natooke shop again and picking up another bolt. This fix wasn’t so bad, just 5RMB =) Being back in the shop did make me start to think about switching out my handlebars and getting a set of bullhorn handlebars. But… I better watch my spending =p

-Duncan

I‘m very fortunate to have fellow biking friends here in Beijing- it sure beats biking around solo! Though, it does make it a bit harder when I’m thinking about weaving in between traffic because I have to think about whether my buddy will be able to make the same route behind me. Sticking to the bike lanes is no fun here in Beijing because regular cyclists bike really slow, and also because cars always invade the bike lane; it’s so frustrating! Sometimes I just want to tap the car on the hood and say: “hey, this is a bike lane”. It’s even more frustrating because drivers in Beijing have no consideration for surrounding traffic, so they’ll swerve into bike lanes to beat traffic, or they’ll make sudden stops while in the bike lane, causing all the cyclists to make evasive maneuvers. Freaking drivers. Anyhow! End rant!

Where was I? Oh yes, biking with a buddy! I went on a ride today with Phebe- one of the first people I met here in Beijing, and also is my very cool connection and is how I got to help out at the NBA game last year when the Nuggets and Pacers played in Beijing (courtside is SICK!). She was riding a Trek hybrid bike. I don’t know much about it, except that it’s a 44.5cm frame =p. You want to know how huge I am? I ride a 58cm frame, lol!

My old brake pads were running really thin so we ended up stopping by the Trek store and I picked up a new set of brake pads. The guys were really nice at the store and knew of Ines (the lady that runs the fixed gear shop in Beijing). They had a good time checking out my bike.
I think I use my brakes too much, but I feel like it’s hard to skid-stop on my setup. I think I’m running a 48/17 ratio? It lets me ride fast, but I’m finding it pretty hard to skid stop (safely, lol).

There are horsies in Beijing! It looked really malnourished though =\

We were biking around the embassy area (aka. rich expats), and I saw a Maserati. I decided to chase it down and snap a picture. It wasn’t too hard considering that traffic in Beijing doesn’t let you get too far =p

An example of stand-still traffic in Beijing. Oh, note that the bus stops are actually IN the bike lane. Yes, that means these huge busses start honking at you and tailing you because they need to pull-up to a bus stop. Scary? Yes.

Hello two busses that are blocking the whole bike lane. Did I try to squeeze through that gap? You betcha… jk. I didn’t. Bus > Bike =_=.

Poor peep are bored on the bus. Traffic stinks yo. Good thing I can just zip by! =)

I love seeing what these cart guys are carrying- it’s always the most interesting stuff!

Alright- this ‘dude’ was straight up stylin… or lack thereof. I dunno man, asian fashion has me speechless sometimes.

Will probably go for another ride on Wednesday, since it’s a public holiday and I have no Chinese class. Hopefully will be riding down towards the old drum and bell towers in Beijing (鼓楼大街).

Until then!

-Duncan

It was my birthday yesterday- w00t, the big Twenty Four. I don’t really feel old, and I guess I shouldn’t. Twenty four is still young (at least that’s what I keep telling myself).

I was celebrating with a group of friends on the East side of Beijing, and they got me an awesome (much needed) 5-piece set of pots and pans! I think that is proof that I’m old- only old people would get excited about getting cookware for their birthday, huh? But it’s because currently we have one skillet, and like two forks in our kitchen. This is how guys live… lol. They also made me a humorous card with a picture of me chowing down on McD’s, and an exhortation to stop eating McDonalds; and that I now have no excuse to not cook meals anymore.

Zomg it even comes with a ladle! Haha.

Oh yeah! Hello SilverStone Cookware set. I love the marketing: “Cook up some EXCITEMENT!”

-Duncan

I was a bit gung-ho on Monday and decided that I would bike to the US Embassy to pick up my US Visa. It’s about a 15.5km (9.6mi) ride, so it isn’t that much farther than the distance that I biked on Saturday from the Natooke fixed gear shop. But by the time I picked up my visa I didn’t feel that tired so I figured that I would head over to 三里屯 to grab some lunch and to rest for a bit. The forecast predicted scattered thunderstorms throughout Beijing during the afternoon, but the sky didn’t show any signs of rain coming and was looking unusually blue and clear of smog, so I decided that I would take advantage of day and bike over to 王府井 and 天安门 just because I was pretty close already. I ended up biking about 50km (31mi)- perhaps even more, because I got lost a couple of times and biked in the wrong direction- whoops! Not a bad distance for a second ride I would say. Also, very very thankful for my HTC Touch2 (not the best phone) but it was a key tool during my ride: Google Maps, GPS, and a handy-dandy camera all in one =)

Here are some pics from the day’s ride. It was a little date with my bike. People were looking at me like I was stupid for taking pictures of my bike, womp womp.

An approximate map of my route-

I started the day off with some mug shots of my bike.

First stop- Picking up my Visa from the post office next to the US Embassy.

Next- 三里屯 The Village. It was hard to get pics here because the security guards were basically chasing me out. I had to explain to them (in my bad Chinese) that I wasn’t trying to lock my bike to the fountain, and that I just wanted to take a picture. Crazy security guards. You’ll see in the second picture that there’s a security guard (white shirt and black tie) in the background watching my every move…

王府井- Not a very telling picture, but I couldn’t find a ‘cool’ place to perch my bike up to show that I was at 王府井, so I just left. On my way out, I saw these guys just standing around. Is an F license plate a gov’t plate? I wouldn’t be surprised to see undercover guys since it’s somewhat close to 天安门.

Next stop, 天安门 in 2km…
I actually missed a picture of this no-entry road sign that showed a car with an explosion above it. Basically “please no cars with bombs, thanks”, lol.

I was going to make a stop over at the 鼓楼 Drum Tower on the way back home, but I was pretty exhausted by that time- and it’ll give me incentive to make another ride out soon.

-Duncan

I made my first ride in Beijing on Saturday May 29th from the Natooke fixed-gear shop in 雍和宫 back home to 五道口, which is about 12km (7.5mi). It’s not going to wow any avid bike riders, but I’ve never biked this distance before. The longest distance I’ve biked is from the South campus of the University of Illinois, to the North campus, which is about 2.6km (1.6mi). Moreover, I haven’t ridden any type of bicycle for over 5 months- so, I’m pretty happy with that first ride here.

Now that I’m studying full-time, I’ll have more time on my hands to wander around the city. Beijing is an amazing city to bike through, especially on a fixed gear, because there’re hardly any hills! Good news for me!

Here are some shots of the Natooke shop (and I have to say, the camera on the HTC Touch2 isn’t bad!).

I’ll have some pictures up of my bike soon. Haven’t had the time to sit grab my cam. Now if I can just figure out a way to clean up and sell my old scooter…

-Duncan

I was supposed to give an update on the 24th of this month but it’s been a packed week-

On Tuesday I headed over to the East side of Beijing to get my US Visa at 6am in the morning. I thought that I’d be beating the crowds but to my astonishment when I arrived at the US Embassy there was a huge mob (and I mean mob) of people waiting at the gates. Amusingly, I realized that these people weren’t actually waiting to get into the embassy, but were family and relatives of applicants who were lining up at the door- sort of like moral support. I’ll be heading back on Monday or Tuesday to pick up my completed Visa, so I’ll snap a couple of pictures of this mob that I’m talking about. One thing I realized, though, is how much of a privilege it is for me to get a US Visa; and even just my mindset of ‘expecting’ to get the visa approved. Throughout the day at the embassy (yes, it took pretty much half of my day- I arrived at the door at 7:15am, and finally left the embassy at around 1pm) I overheard portions of people’s application interview; some were wanting to ‘visit’ family members in the States, or to ‘attend’ a business conference. I witnessed several rejections and it was sobering to think that many of these people were wanting to get into the US to take a chance at the ‘American lifestyle’. I digress…

On Wednesday to Thursday I attended the GMIC (Global Mobile Internet Conference) 2010, also on the East side of Beijing. It was a great opportunity soaking in and learning more about the mobile internet industry in Asia, and even to hear the pitches from the startups at the competition, and the grilling from the many investors on the judging panel. If there’s one thing I learned from the conference, it’s that you’ve gotta have thick skin if you’re running a startup, especially in China. The investors ask some tough questions and really dig in to get to the core of not only your business idea, but moreso to find out what kind of person you are. “We invest in people”, is the line that sticks in my mind from Joe Jasin with DNA Ventures. And about running a startup in China (especially as a foreigner), you’re going to get screwed over in China- it’s expected, so you just have to accept it, grow from it, and move on.

Finally- the update.

Basically, to cut to the chase, I quit my position with Morodo. I had finished off my three month probation period (a common practice in China for new employees to be placed on a probation period) and was waiting to sign my full-time contract, which gave me some time to think and reflect on why I had come to China almost a year ago. It was quite a timely opportunity for me to reflect, and I remembered that the two goals that I had for coming to China were: 1) To learn Chinese 2) To learn and assimilate into the Chinese marketplace, both of which I was seeing myself not being able to fulfill with Morodo.
I’ll now be studying Chinese full-time for about six months, and I’m hoping that that timeframe will be enough for me to get my Chinese up to conversational proficiency, and hopefully after that, it’ll be much easier for me to continue my language learning through watching movies, reading books, and conversing with locals.

Big changes, but I’m excited and looking forward to what this second year in Beijing will be like. After one year of ‘figuring things out’, I’m finally getting down to accomplishing the goal that I had when I first came a year ago.

-Duncan

I‘ll have an update after May 24th, as there will be some big decisions to share about for what I’ll be doing for the following six months. I’ve been reflecting on this year here in Beijing, and been trying to evaluate the calling and vision that I had when I arrived in China almost a year ago, on June 1st 2009.

Till then, stay tuned.

-Duncan