On Thursday night at 10 p.m., I got on a train to Qingdao with my classmate Shanthi from fall semester. She's in Beijing as part of a University of Iowa student journalism volunteer corps, along with my classmate Marcus from the Spring.
I took the hard seats and got in a little before 7 a.m. which would prove to be the start to a very long day. By 9 a.m., we were at the apartment of three friends (Kelli, Beth, and Lynn) who are spending the first couple months of the summer in Qingdao. There were four additional people who had been traveling around since school ended. Marcus and Dan had just gotten in from Weihai, another city in Shandong Province, and Yayoi and Wes had gotten in from god knows where.
The nine of us set out planning the for a good Fourth of July Afternoon. For me and about half of them that meant a trip to, befitting traditional middle American celebrations, Wal-mart.
Yayoi and I, being happy for the camera while trying to hide from the rain under a backhoe. By around 4 p.m., we went to the beach with all of our preparations in tow. These included over one hundred sticks of meat and veggie chuanr (Chinese kabobs), fixings for an impromptu grill a keg purchased for US$8.50, and various swim wear. We were being optimistic because, while the day started out hot and muggy, it had drizzled a little and got much cooler after 2 p.m. We got in the water and the rain picked up. It was fun, just very cold. Once back out of the water with no end to the rain in sight, it became less fun. No cabs were around the beach, so we had to send two people out on the streets to look for some. Seeing those cabs roll up to save us from wet, cold misery was ranks as one of my most relieving moments in recent memory.
Wes and Lynn seated by the grill as it flares up.We went back, everybody piled into their cave like bathroom to rinse off in the shower. To give some idea of this bathroom, the only drain was the squatter on the other side. Nonetheless, I was thankful to be warm. I changed clothes and mostly watched as everybody huddled around our impromptu grill. We started the coals with Baijiu, of course, and with the assistance of a fan it actually got going pretty quick. We spent the next two hours gorging on chuanr, beer, and ending with s'mores. We then walked down to the nearby food street to pick up some fireworks this one shopkeeper was holding for us. We ended up talking to these two middle-age Chinese dudes for like two more hours and as is Chinese style, they tried to fill us with more beer and food. Talked a lot of politics. Then, we light of firecrackers in the street. That action had been made illegal for the month of July due to something probably Olympic related. But when we said it was America's national day, some the Chinese we met said, "Oh, no problem."
Four of us sleeping on the floor the next morning, as taken by Kelli from the table.In true spring semester form, we then went out to a club and danced. This ended in us getting back around 3 a.m., running in through yet another downpour and getting wet. Seven of us piled into one room of the apartment, sleeping on one couch; a wooden table, which the actual resident does uses as a bed and is about as soft as a Chinese bet; and the floor covered in bamboo mats. That brought the end to my first Fourth outside of the U.S. and probably my longest and most interesting anywhere.
I rounded out Saturday sleeping in, going to the Tsingtao Beer Factory, and swimming in the rain once again. Came back Sunday morning on a 7:40 a.m. soft seat train that got in at 2 p.m.
Work tomorrow. It's going very well and I enjoy it. I'll try to update soon about that and the other conditions of my life in Beijing.
Not directly related to the Olympics but slated to be finished then, the China Central Television Headquarters as seen when I get off the subway going to my tutoring job. It's much huger than that (you can see the cranes on top just barely), but it's far away.
