Hi Everybody!

First, to answer FPK's question on the floor toilets. If I am right informed, this was no originally Chinese invention. The original patent seems to be Frensh to me (at least I have discovered this design of fascilities only in France before) and the Chinese were so unlucky to (1) import it and to (2) copy it... You find these toilets in many hotels, malls, etc... So, what I recommend the Westener in need is to take a taxi to the Kempinski at the Lufthansa Centre. There you will clearly develop some felling of home, comfort and protection.

I just scanned through my shots from Moskow and I found some real nice ones that I do not want you to miss:



Soooo, finally I managed to write something again. Actually, I still have many topics left (I keep a record of them) which I would like to tell you about and I hope I can manage that during the next sessions. So, what did I do since Tuesday? Well, first, I finally started with what I came here for: studying Chinese. And, I can tell you, what has started with the pronounciation (where again is the difference between "j" and "q", "c" and "z"???) just continues with the nice, beautiful Chinese characters. I mean, in our first writing lesson, the teacher told us, that we will be learning ca. 1000 characters, which is sufficient to write / read 10.000 words (which leaves each character with about 10 different, non-connected senses/translations). She seemed to be very pleased and proud of that, so I kept the comment, that in Europe (Latin Characters) we need about 30 per language (26 + special signs ,e.g. ä, ö, ü, ß) to be able to read and write all (!) of our words by myself.
Anyway... these beautiful characters turn out to be much less beautiful if you have to learn them. You have to imagine, that each character is composed of up to 3 (4?) components, which solo are characters on their own as well. So, turning it all around: If you fail to write one component correctly (or the correct component) you write another word :-) and if I tell you now, that some components are just distinguished by the fact that a line touches or crosses another line or weather or not you write a diagonal or horizontal line, you might get a feeling for what made me go to the gym so often to get rid of my aggression :-)

Oh, sorry, I forgot another "inconvenience": My beloved friends the fuwuyuans (fascility managers' assistants, cleaning lady, receptionist, however you would like to call them) don't get tired to do everything in their might to piss me off. I mean, I do not have a problem with one of them watching my screensaver pictures while the other one cleans my room, and I quite got used to the jackhammer and the smell of paint in the basement, but what I definitely cannot stand is shouting and stomping and talking all through the floor and rattling and banging carriages and so on right on time at lovely 6:30 on a sunday morning. Hello? Maybe they did not realise yet, that this is a FOREIGN STUDENT'S RESIDENCE HALL? I suppose, it could be quite good maners in China to wake up your residents with some decent shouting as soon as the sun can be seen, but it is definitely close to a public offence to kick foreign students, who might just have found the pleasure of making the jump into their fast circulating bed (due to the abuse of alcoholic beverages) and who look forward to a late breakfast and an easy day out of their beds at this hell of a time. Knocking my door this morning a little bit later came close to an official declaration of war. And I would have taken it, if I had had the might to defeat gravity. Anyway... I am sometimes a bit ...*ehem*, irritated by the local customs... that starts with people pushing the line or literally pushing you against the counter if you would like to e.g. by a ticket at the entrance of the summer palace or if you would like to gather your food at the cantine, continues with tackling people in the street... I mean, the latter did not happen to me though (one advantage if you are 2 heads higher and twice as big) but - and here comes the extraordinary thing - I observed it in the street, when a man tackled a quite skinny girl! Hello? He walked right through her, if as she did not exist!!! Why? I mean, if you are in a hurry things happen, but at least, you watch out for children and ladies, don't you (I mean back home!). A collegue of my uncle got her foot overridden by a bicycle carridge right in the street. The men did not even say sorry!
I am also trying to surrpress the automatic reaction of mine to keep my head low and dodge away as soon as I her somebody "cleaning his throat". Positive aspect: You hear the person quite loudly and they always delay the shot, so you have at least some seconds to react: check for the man on the trigger. Has he seen you? where is the wind comming from? (this last is no joke. I was standing on the lee side of one of these "gunners" (Sorry Arsenal, this is not personal) and it is definitely no fun, even if you only get grazed)
Second positive aspect: you can be definitely sure that he has only got that one shot ready and standing by at the moment, because he gathered all his "ammunition"as can be told from the preparation noice. And the art of "curtain fire" is luckily not practised in the street (or to the elevator, floor, even restaurant or gym).
Just to put that right: Not everyone is spitting. But it is that frequently and loudly performed (especially by worker or taxi driver/rickshaw driver, waste service, no students so far) that I considered it worth to write this, exagerated comment on it.
Next strange thing in connection with noise: Chinese people seem to be very much more insensible towards noise. We went to a beautiful very Chinese restaurant (no spitting there): It was a small covered court, with tiny tables and tiny banks to sit on. The court was packed and there was a level of noise that you were not able to understnad the person sitting 2 chairs next to you. This is said to be a normal Chinese situation (Check out our cantine for proof). Why I am telling that? Because we went to some café the other day, and while we waited for our pizza, we took out our playing cards and started a decent round of skat (german card game). It lasted about 3 rounds until the waitress came and told us that playing games is forbidden in the restaurant, because it would create too much noise.... No comment. It was just the biggest mistake she could make, because (a) we felt uncomfortable then and (b) we stopped thinking and starte talking, which definitely raised the overall volume in the room.
Third, more funny encounter: The gym. As I told you, I now go there regularily (watch out, I am keeping it up :-)... The point is, that whenever I start to train on the treadmill, I somehow cannot get ride of the picture of the typical German (prejeduce!!!) doing sports - especially when I am able to see myself in the mirror.... Almost all the neigbours walk there! The ladies even read their newspapers while walking! And there you are, German, running, at twice the speed of your neigbours, your heavy steps crashing on the mill, you are sweating, you are wheezing, but you keep up the speed (or even increase) for 30 min... somehow like a machine. the best were the ladies who were sitting on their training bikes, one arm on the pannel, head in the hand, reading the paper and hardly moving their legs...

Friday night we had our first big hit on the Beijing nightlife - the team:

three guys, one lady,
the mission: to rock the Alfa's 80s party
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the armment: lots of beers, good humour and a long night
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We had a great and funny night and a hard morning after :-) The only thing that we did not like that much was that there were about 80% gringos in the place. We actually wanted to learn how the Chinese party on a Friday night.
And the only thing that was strange was the following: at about 2:30, we left the club and went to the Lotus Lake, where you find some very decent bars, clubs etc. in a very nice atmosphere. But, when we arrived there, we realised that everything was closed. Hello? This is not Erlangen! This is Beijing!!! This is a 17 Mio. people metropole! Do not tell me, that the nicest spot I know here is closed down on a Friday night at 2?!?

Saturday I started with half a bus/subway/taxi odysee throughout the city to meet my uncle and to have breakfast (white sausage, prezels but no beer, there was too much damage left from the night before) at the Brauhaus. We strolled around a fake market checked out a decent rooftop bar... it was a very nice afternoon.
Fake markets: You don't belive it. they look like real malls. Not that kind of street market you know from the time when the border to Poland freshly was opened or the bazars in Turkey. They are covered, and real installed shops...


I bought some jeans. I need to say that my uncle is very experienced in bargaining and he is familiar with the local pricing level. So, the lady in the shop started the offer with 480 RMB - 48 €. Well in the end, I bought it for 60. (She did not seem to be too happy about it, but she sold it to us). Polo shirt: Starting Price: 180. Price to Pay: 30. And so on. Conclusion: the rule of thumb of Turkey - start with 50% - does by far not apply.

Today, we were at the summer palace (beside some exciting character writing exercises :-( ) - right before sunset. It was amazing! I have never seen such a nice palace before - right at a lake, somehow perfectly fitting in the surrounding - harmony, like in a dream (ok, if you just ignor the legions of sightseeing people). Here come some pictures, but Bastian took some excellent shots, which I will upload as soon as I have got them.


This is Olivia, one of my collegues here. As you can see from the picture, she found a part time job to fund her life here in Beijing :-) -->



Sooo, now it finally is time for me to go to sleep... If I make it tomorrow, I will tell you something about Chinese Food and going out in Chinese Restaurant tomorrow... a topic I wanted to get started really soon
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Summing up: It is very nice here, I settled a bit, normal life is starting and I am trying to make the best of the much time I have at the moment.

Cu, Have a great day and a great week!

Yours, Cockatoo