Saturday, February 10, 2007
Yunnan Trip Itinerary
Monday, February 5, 2007
Monday Morning Super Bowl
I like the "snickers- do something manly" and the "sierra mist- come over beard" commercials the most. Bud Light had some really funny ones too.
Snowboarding
I have found a few people here that like to keep busy. This past weekend we went skiing in the mountains just north of Beijing. We joined a group of about 40 Chinese students and bussed our way about 2 hours north of the city. The Chinese students sang karaoke the entire trip there and back. They just kept singing the same 10 songs the whole time, by the end I was at least humming along. Every now and then a song would throw in a "Yeah, Yeah, Baby".
We got there at about 10 am and pushed our way through the lines and onto the slopes. I rented a stylish green snow suit. I really only wanted the pants, it was about 50 degrees out and the shirt came off for a couple runs. Five of us snowboarded while two others skied. We were easily the best people there. I think Chinese people like to take dramatic falls. They aim straight for the bottom of the hill and about 5 seconds later a ski and pole explosion occurs. It was pretty humorous watching this. The mountain was pretty easy, but the ice kept us on our toes... literally. We mastered the same run each time and there were no lines to this lift, because no one there was good enough for that hill. All of us met at 4 and loaded up the bus. This trip cost me a total of about 200 yuan or about $25. There is also supposedly an indoor ski place in Beijing that we are looking to try. I have uploaded a few more pictures that can be seen at the following link.http://www.flickr.com/photos/85224480@N00/
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Beijing World Cup
Monday, January 29, 2007
Beijing Hikers
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Kro's Nest
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
The above picture was not taken by me, but this is where I went shopping today. It is a 6 story building that has all sorts of things. Silk kimonos, ties, rolexes, designer bags, custom made suits, gloves, belts, electronics, pearls, basically anything. (99% of the stuff is fake, but still its pretty nice.)
There are NO set prices, which means you must bargain. I bought a leather briefcase/bag for my classes here. They started the price at about 300 Kuai which is about $50. All you have to do is say tai gui le (too expensive) and the price slowly drops. It really drops as you begin to walk away. I got the bag for 90 Kuai or about $11. They are not afraid to grab a hold of you either. I had one chinese women pulling me to her store and another to the store opposite. It was pretty funny and it is a lot like a game.
My friend who is asian walks in front of me and they don't say a word to him. I guess I must look like a sucker. He is good at bartering and helped a lot of us, the chinese people got mad at him a lot for telling us we could still go lower. It was quite the experience and a lot of fun. Let me know if anyone wants anything while I'm here.