Warm Inside

We've got heat! On Oct 23, 2002 a warm flood of indoor heating filled my dorm room. It was a v nice surprise after hibernating in my warm and toasty Canadian sleeping bag. Other people outside the campus are not so lucky. I guess they will have to conform with the general Chinese "heat rule".

Other weather news. I heard that during the summer, if the temperature reaches 40 degrees, people can take the day off. My classmate told me that during the past summer, the temperature shown on television stayed at 39C for several days! Slave drivin' it.

Other Fees

You have to pay some places if you park in front of a certain store. I'm talking about bike parking. People lock their bikes, not to chains or to bike locks. There are too many bikes to do that! They generally lock the round lock around the back wheel. If you think about it if its locked, the bike won't move and the quality of the bike is too cheap to pry off, say the seat or the frame. It's easier to unscrew the lock and run off with the bike.

The Chinese students on campus share 4-6 people in a room while foreigners stay with either one other roommate or by herself. Chinese students only pay 1500 yuan for a school year while foreign student pay from $3-16 USD a night. It's approximate $8.2 USD to a yuan here. $5.5 CAN to a yuan. I don't even want to start imagining how much local students pay for tuition! But each time the Chinese students want to take a shower, they pay 2 yuan! I heard that was the reason why not many Chinese students shower. . .

In terms of using the phone. I have to use a phone card each time I call out, but calling in is free. So I have to dial approximately 30 numbers before I even get to dialing the 8-11 digit local number! Those of you complaining about dialing 10-digit numbers, be ecstatic! If you live at your own place outside the dorms you get charged every out-going and in-going call. That's why people tend to SMS (instant message) each other using their cell phones. It's cheaper. But I refuse and have been able to abstain from purchasing a 1000 kuai cell.

Random Poetry

The Kung Fu movies are wrong,
So let me sing you this song,
I don't eat bamboo,
or sniff Chinese glue,
And haven't once here played ping-pong.

Just "Chill'n" in Beijing

Hey, I just found out another similarity between Beijing and Ottawa. The temperature! Of course I haven't been in Ottawa during the fall, but the temperature is already close to the frigid weather of winter in Ottawa. I sit in the classroom wearing three layers tops and two layers bottom with Thinsulator gloves, shivering. There are lots of people from Indonesia and the Philipines here and they all think I'm crazy.

You're Canadian. Why do you feel cold?

All Canadians feel cold. Its just that some are more prepared than others. (Guess which category I fit into?:)

*sigh* But it's true. Once you're away from a cold place for a while you lose the tolerance. I used to take long walks at night in shorts and tank tops in the dead of winter in Vancouver and portage through ice and sleet on my way to school. Other Vancouverites could only goggle at my courage while they weep in their thick coats, scarves, toques, and boots. PS. Americans and Australians call "toques" "beanies".

So why am I chillin' in Beijing? You see, all you privileged North American boys and girls, here in the Capital of China, universities, public housing and workplaces generally are not allowed to have heating until the middle of November! Tis true. I experience the true bliss of heat today a lunch when we dined at this fancy hotel. But needless to say, I get my fill of heat (aka. radiation) in the crowded yet "warm" computer room where computer spew fresh microchip-fibre-network air everywhere.

I hear the temperature is between 0-12 degrees here. What's it like in Vancouver?

News you get at home?

Please tell me what world news you have been getting in Canada! I heard about the bombings in the Island of Bali and in the Philippines. What is the Canadian take on this news and what do they focus on!!!