the warricks go to china

this post goes out to anyone who has questioned my blogging habits while abroad. many of you have asked why i consistently write... are you bored in china? aren't you too tired? shouldn't you be studying? do you have friends?

the answer to all of the above is: no matter how busy i am, writing maintains high-priority. i believe my experiences here are meaningless if i don't take the time to reflect on them, and write them somewhere for when my memory fails me.

of course, all those "beliefs" were trashed the minute my long-awaited visitors arrived. two fridays ago, the 10th, i met andrew at the airport, spent the afternoon with him in chaoyang, and took him out to meet my classmates in sanlitun. saturday morning, i participated in a hutong tour with my alliance classmates, then jetted back to the airport to pick up mommy and daddy! we had a simple dinner in wudaokou and got them settled at their hotel. the rest... is chaos

HIGHLIGHTS

* playing tour guide with mom and dad for their first day in beijing. andrew also tagged along! i decided to hit three essential locations (which are conveniently proximate to each other): tiananmen square, the gate of heavenly peace (where mao declared the foundation of the PRC in 1949), and the forbidden city (home of ming and qing emperors). hopefully my tour participants learned more than just how exhausting it is to get around this mammoth city!



* afternoon tea at the peninsula in wangfujing. not nearly as glamourous as the hong kong version, but certainly enjoyable and necessary relaxation for mom and dad after their visit to the temple of heaven in the beating beijing sun. the wangfujing bookstore also proved highly entertaining, mom and i were absorbed with a chinese zodiac book ("the winter-born sheep will have a difficult life, because of the lack of grass to eat in the cold months and the propensity of humans to kill and eat the sheep"). dad picked up a trotsky biography...

* taking mom and dad to restaurants that seem so sketchy to them, but to me, have to come to represent delicious and cheap fare. nevermind the obnoxious fluorescent lights, screeching waitresses, or guys at the next table with their shirts off, taking shots of baijiu and spitting fish bones on the floor. i also brought them to experience the madness that is the BLCU cafeteria at mealtime. no wonder they have begun to frequent western chains such as kfc, mcdonalds, and pizza hut.

* i didn't get to participate in this one, but dad mom and andrew went to the military museum! of course... dad said it was awesome, mom said they were there FOREVER, and andrew said "your dad is a nerd." ok, maybe not in so few words. but that was the gist. hahaaa

* taking andrew out with my alliance classmates. apparently we are a rowdy bunch. also, nomm'ing korean BBQ for the first time at a well-known place down the street from my school. just like fudan, wudaokou's universities are chock-full of students from korea and japan. andrew is a friend to koreans all over the world, so obviously it went well.

so that's last week! pictures will be added later, if i can hijack a few from dad's computer (haven't been able to juggle tour guide AND photographer). the above are from andrew's nikon. needless to say, i was also keeping my routine of 3 hours of chinese, 3 hours of chinese film/economics/sociology a day, plus the according homework. this week's english classes debated mao's political and social legacy, discussed the economy that deng xiaoping had to work with when he came to power in 1978, and introduced us to the ideal socialist man through propaganda films of the 1960s. obviously, all music to this china-geek's ears.

so even if i have stretched myself in a few too many directions, it has been highly rewarding. andrew was safely off to HK on friday, and mom + dad and i made our pilgrimage to my ancestral province, shandong 山东, this weekend (next post!) i am so happy to have mom and dad staying in wudaokou, just across the street from me. they are really getting the experience. perhaps i will post a concluding interview with them at the end of the week ;) i know they have lots to share!