Yes.

Yes, I can deal with that.

Ache

Today, I'm back in Beijing after oh so long spent in Southern China.
This means that I have more access to the intertubes, but also that I have more things in my schedule than work/sleep/work/sleep/work/sleep/shower. Which means I have more time to post, but less will to. Hmm.

Since I'm at the end of a second day of detoxing, I'm sleepy and a little crabby. To cut through this, I've put up some pictures for you all to look at of the Hutong and some roomies. Huzzah!

OMG PICS

lovelove
jess

Sleepy...

Were you wondering what kind of cool places I've been so far on my trips around Southern China? Well, the above picture is a perfect example. Thats right, I got taken to the exact scene that graces the back of the 20 RMB bill. Not only extremely beautiful, but pretty cool for novelty's sake too, eh? The days lately are filled with driving around the all manner of gorgeous backdrops for this movie that is being shot- if Guilin is full of anything, it's full of gorgeous backdrops. I have even been involuntarily nominated "English exclamation checker lady" as I'm the only English speaker on set and the main character in the movie is supposed to be an ABC (American born Chinese). Every scene or two he has some kneejerk English utterance, which is now run by that English teacher girl (aka yours truly). I am resisting the urge to give him extremely odd things to say, though if my resolve breaks the first thing they'll get is a 'Holy Cow, Batman!'.

In other news...what is my other news? Not much. Stuck down here in Southern China through the holidays. I never thought i'd miss Christmas, but I do. I enjoy being around my friends and celebrating the relationships that i've cultivated in all realms of my life. I enjoy cooking and especially baking, neither of which I'll get to do down here in my swank Sheraton hotel room. Swank as it may be, I'd much rather trade it in for the cold and rickety existence that is hutong life. Sigh. Hopefully I'll get flown home sometime around the new year, if only for a day or two...

Since i have no outlet down here in the business center (my room has no internet, so the lobby it is for me), my low battery life is telling me i have to go. Emails would be appreciated, since I can't get to a fast enough internet connection to call anyone at all, and the solitary Southern Chinese lifestyle I am becoming accustomed to could use a little breaking up by friends and family.

Love you guys
Jessie

Hello lovelies.

I'm sorry i don't have much for you today, its very late and i'm very tired. To make up for the lack of my own content on the post, I'll give you some interesting things to look at. And a quick update or two.

First off in the last few days I went to Guilin （桂林）, in Guangxi (广西） province. Guilin is one of only four cities in China whose historical and cultural protection are listed as a top priority. Well, thats what Wikipedia says anyway. What I learned on the way there is that there is a common saying in China that goes "桂林山水甲天下", which translates roughly to "Guilin's scenery is the best under heaven" or, "Guilin's scenery is better than heaven". And, from what i saw, it was rather majestic indeed. I got to hike up into the mountains and see the mist shrouded terraced rice paddies. They looked like this:

More or less, cause thats not actually my photo.

I also went to Guangzhou 广州 in Guangdong 广东 province. Guangdong is that province waaay down south, where, like in Hong Kong, they speak Cantonese in addition to Mandarin. In fact, Guangdong is a hop skip and a jump away from Hong Kong, which makes sense seeing as they speak the same language. It's also where most of the goods sold in China (and those sold around the world that bear the stamp 'Made in China') are produced, and where a lot of Chinese movies and commericals are shot. Guangzhou is filled with banyans trees, bustling street markets, and tall graceful hotels that peer down, down at clustered city slums. Like a lot of China it is a city filled with double standards and dichotomies. I enjoyed walking it's streets and seeing the trees and fruits that remind me of home, as well as feeling the closest thing to island air that i have in months. What was really nice about the trip down south was getting out of the icy terror that is Beijing.

Guangdong is, you guessed it, the yellow province. Guangxi is right next to it to the left- quick lesson, dong '东' means east and xi '西' means west. Get it? 广西 and 广东? Kind of like North Carolina and South Carolina? Wow, I never thought that I'd be 20, sitting in Beijing in the winter writing a blog post comparing 广东 and 广西 to North and South Carolina...odd the ways that life turns...

Anyway. This is whats stuck in my head:

Kisses and love to everyone. Talk to you soon, about adventures and ideas.

jess

Rewind that, once.

My belly is full.

My dinner tonight, comprised of two hot cups of fresh soymilk, one big portion of rice, two portions of bok choy with sesame seeds and one red bean bun cost me a total of 43 cents. It’s more than I usually get.

The is air warm, sticky, and damp. On my computer playing is G. Love and Special Sauce, before which was the Sound Providers (who instead of soothing my headaches now make me melancholy), before whom was Cool Calm Pete (because what else do I listen to, really?). On my mind is irritation at the dichotomy, the two sides of life in China, presented to me unmistakably by my campus everyday. This and the beautification of the city of Beijing.

Let’s start with a little rundown of my daily sights and sounds.

My campus is beautiful. The parks in Beijing do the parks in America to absolute shame. Nature here is holistic. Thriving, they exemplify the carefully studied, articulated green thumb of China. The style is overgrown and interaction between nature’s creation and man’s is the goal. Paths made of irregular stone, through whose gaps thrive lush and vibrant grass, meander through slopes and valleys while sun light is filtered through the overhanging leaves growing so low as to grace the heads of passing admirers. My brief description does these lovely parks no justice- I could go on for a good few pages at least and still tickle the top of the subject (and I’d dip into too many trite similes, so I’ll save us all). Theyre all over, easily accessible, well used. The walkways around campus are mainly wide, tree lined boulevards, shady and European inspired. They show students exactly the face of Beijing that China would most want to present to foreigners and leave a lasting impression on those Chinese students working towards travelling abroad.

What the campus doesn’t let us see are the slums and shanty towns our construction workers live in. Their sounds, however, belie their existence. At all hours (all. As in, two in the afternoon and two in the morning) the construction and repairs upon various campus buildings can be heard. Currently on campus, as around all of Beijing, a process of beautification is being pushed to breakneck speeds. With the Olympics around the corner buildings are being refurbished, fences painted, fines for loitering and littering imposed. This brings in the need for additional workers, many of whom live within spitting distance of those whose businesses and homes they work on. On my campus, the workers lodgings are often within 200 feet of any given path, though disregarded and out of view. Walking around campus they appear suddenly as you turn an unexpected corner, and vanish just as quickly as you continue on to class. These meager abodes are hidden behind the large tarp walls that do double time shielding construction areas and construction quarters. They are in the farther corners of the school, away from the main gate and the foreign student housing. They are often tents made of canvas propped over a pole, three cots to a tent. Sometimes less, and sometimes the conditions just cannot be hidden. Case in point, the view out a class buildings window:

Of course, I can see examples of this when I step into the roads around my school to buy fruit or go for a bubble tea. The streets are the homes of hawkers and laborers, squatting between jobs for a cigarette or proffering wares to all who pass. I want to make it clear that I in no way disdain these people of the city, in fact I have much more respect for them than the people who zip past in dark tinted imported mercedes and bmws. These people, they work for their living. They are the living, breathing soul of the city of Beijing. And they are unapologetic. I think one of the things I love most about Beijing is the human feel of the city. The dirty, hand built, human feel. This feeling has long since been washed away from most American cities- they’ve been disinfected, air cooled, sprayed with febreze and checked for child safety. But now that’s what Beijing wants too. The Olympics are coming, and Beijing is busy waxing away those unseemingly hairs and putting on it’s best party dress.

As this is getting lengthy (or, at least, I feel like youre probably getting tired of reading it), I’m going to treat it as the prep in an installation on my opinions of the beautification of Beijing for the Olympics. Now you have a basic understanding of the dichotomy presented everyday by my university, and the tactile flavors of the streets. Ruminate on that. Dust in your nose, hot honey textured air on your skin, and the crack sizzle of raw meat grilling over a setup propane griddle to your left- you should buy one. When homeboy closes down his 4x6 foot grease covered kitchen for the night, he pulls out his cot, business becomes bedroom, and he catches some rest before the morning starts the cycle over.

Love&luz