First day at the office

I started my internship this week at China Beijing VIP Special Security Services Corporation. Yes it is a very long name. They provide bodyguards and armored cars and several other services to celebrities or businesses. They are one of the few security companies allowed by the Chinese government, so they have been very busy with the Olympics approaching.
I enjoy the job a lot. So far I have mostly done Chinese-English translations, but it seems that I will have the chance to write up some proposals or even go tag along on one of our client's security assignments.
One of the fun things I got to do was go out to a potential clients (a resort) for a risk assessment. The town we were at were famous for Xi Gua (watermelon) so we bought two and ate them at the office. We had a really good time.
I would have the chance to go to a security assignment this weekend, but I will be at the Great Wall. I will leave you with a picture I took on the bus yesterday.

Class time!

Today I started my Chinese language class. I have class every Monday, 1:30-4:30, and every Friday, 9:00-12:00. The lessons seem to deal mostly with Lao Li (Old Li) and his misadventures. For instance, today Lao Li started growing a flower to give to his girlfriend. He really wanted to impress her so he watered it and cared for it until it became a beautiful flower. When the flower was ready, he dressed nice, combed his hair, and went in search of his girlfriend. He thought he found her, said I love you, and gave her the flower. However, the person who Lao Ling thought was his girlfriend was actually a very mad Frenchman. Lao Li was really scared and ran away. The second story was similar in that Lao Li had a bad day, this time from driving his bike to fast and falling into a manhole.

The lessons are fun, and the three hours went by relatively fast. I hope the class stays interesting all year. We get two breaks during the lesson, and all of the students go into the lobby and chat. Today the air conditioning wasn’t working, so we all were very hot. There are seven other students in my class- which is the intermediate level. Of the 35 people in our group, about 15 know Chinese, and the rest don’t know any. My teacher is nice. Her name is Yang Laoshi (Teacher Yang). She doesn’t talk in English much, only to explain difficult concepts.

Last night I went to go see "The Cube", which is the Olympic swimming stadium. At night they light it up real cool, so I thought I would show you a picture.

Tomorrow I start my internship so expect an update soon!

Puttin' On The Ritz

During my internship in Beijing, I am staying at the Hua Kai Hotel. It is in the middle of the city, just north of the Forbidden City, and to the east of the Hou Hai district. This area of town has a lot of narrow streets called Hutongs. You know when you see a old Chinese movie, and all of the Chinese people live in stone houses all right next to each other? Thats what these Hutongs are. My hotel is on Yu'er Hutong. Here is a picture from off of the fire escape down onto the people's houses.And here is my hotel down from the street. You can kind of tell that the streets are paved with stone bricks, not asphalt. I have outlined my room window in red.
Another interesting thing about my Hua Kai Hotel is that they have at least 5 toilets just sitting around the hotel. They aren't hooked up to anything, they're just sitting there. Here is one on the fire escape. There is one more on my floor next to the elevator.

Inside my room is pretty nice. The beds are really hard, so I sleep on top of the comforter. The room isn't dirty, and they clean the room every day. We have a television, an internet cable, a water dispenser (their tap water isn't good), and a couple of electric outlets. I brought my converter so China's 220 V outlets don't blow up my computer.
The bathroom isn't quite as nice. There is always water on the floor, and I haven't figured out what is leaking. The hotel gave us flip flops, so I wear that in the bathroom.
There is the grand tour of the hotel. I'm going to find a Starbucks.

Although the internet is filled with more blogs than anyone wants to read, I have decided to create this humble speck of a web page. The main reason is to let all of you know what is going on here in Beijing, but also so I don’t forget all of my stories before I come home. So enjoy my stories and enjoy the pictures. I miss all of you almost as much as I miss Chuy’s.

Today was a blast; we went to Tiananmen Square and the new Olympic stadium (The Nest). Tiananmen Square was pretty interesting, and I got to see some iconic buildings. The Nest is huge. I was expecting something the size of Yankee Stadium, but it was so much larger. Pictures don’t give it justice.

Afterwards we went and had lunch. Meals with a lot of people are a big ordeal in China. 10-50 different dishes of more food than everyone could possibly eat is ordered. Having grown up being told to finish everything on my plate, I feel a little guilty when literally pounds of food are being thrown away.The meal starts with a cold dish, next are the meats, tofu, and hot vegetable dishes, and finally soup. Some of the dishes will take some getting used to (like the white mushroom which looked and tasted like a sea sponge would), but for the most part everything is really good. Today we ordered spicy tofu, fried pork, grilled beef, some great green beans and eggplant, some sort of rice gelatin (think tasteless jello), rice, and an egg soup. All of the dishes are on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and everyone can swing the food they want around the table and pile some on their plate. Last night we had a bigger banquet welcoming us to Beijing, and 5 times more food was ordered. It was quite the crash course in Chinese food.

I am going to go walk around the city a little bit more, so that’s it for today. On Monday I start my Chinese classes, and on Tuesday I start my internship, so expect some updates soon.