So I have calmed down a bit from my temper tantrum of the week previous. I have gotten most of the real painful work for my job out of the way, and am pretty well rested on this Sunday late-morning. I did get spit on, but it was an accidental spat that only hit the toe of my shoe, and I responded with the Chinese middle finger (it is the pinkie), and was able to walk it off without challenging my adversary to a duel.
I'm getting into the rhythm of the city these days. Where I live there is almost nothing to do, besides eating KFC, which of course is fantastic. I live in the financial district side of town, and there really is not anything Chinese about the place except for the maniacal taxi drivers and crooked cross-walks. So where I once took a taxi to and from work, I now take the taxi to work, but then walk through the college area of town called Wudaoko on the way back, and then ride the subway to home sweet home. The area in between is Wukaoko, or as most call it, "THE WU". And it is pretty sweet, makes me feel like I am alive again.
The WU is filled with everything good and bad that one can imagine. There are a plethora of street vendors hawking delicious and absolutely non-nutritious delicacies such as: chicken, lamb, or fish on a skewer, dumplings, sweet bread filled with all kinds of meat, and other tasty treats. All for an average price of two cuai, which is like thirty cents. Also, just in case anybody was wondering, the most popular type of store in China is everywhere in the WU. This would be the "cigarette shack", you cannot walk a block without seeing about five of them. They consist of a tiny space the size of a small storage shed packed with enough cigarettes to keep Keith Richards puffing for the next decade, and one salty owner/worker with a pound of dirt lodged between his/her fingernails, who has inhaled just one too many lung darts. There is a of load American pop music blasting from speakers in every which way, and to my despair Britney and the Backstreet Boys get more love than Wilt Chamberlain in his prime.
The streets are packed full of all kinds of people, I mean just about anybody and anything goes here. You have your alpha-males, you know what I am talking about, the Chinese meterosexuals are just mackin' and stackin' all over this place, carrying their Prada man-bags with the grace of a decadent lion on the hunt. There are fellow Caucasian expats from all over the bubble, seems that there are more from Europe than the States, but USA is well-represented. I see lots of Nigerians, who are also two years behind American culture, as they rock a lot of FUBU and old-school G-Unit stuff that you would rarely find in the States. And a ton of ABC's, and I am not talking about Another Bad Creation, but American Born Chinese, this is the group that I had previously been going out clubbing with, but this olde man just can't hang with that crazy crowd too much anymore. They just get too damn snackhoused (this would be a euphemism for drunk), and roll out to clubs where the music is so loud that your ears are ringing for the next two days, I mean they are cool peeps, I just can't and haven't hung out with them in a few weeks now because of the after-effects. These would be some of the types of people who hang out in the WU, but I am really just barely scratching the surface, anyone in their twenties with limited funds is well-represented in the WU. Also there are all kinds of cafes, bars, and other random stuff, the one that gets the most buzz is this speak-easy called Propaganda (no joke), which is supposed to be the spot on weekdays.
Anyways, the WU has put be back in a pretty good mood, and the Olympics are gonna be off the chains. It is hot out here too, has been over ninety degrees now for the last few days, and the weather report makes this seem like the way things will be for the foreseeable future. Mix in some humidity and smog, and you get the Beijing air pollution potion that is hell on earth for one's lungs. I would be very surprised if any Track & Field records are broken out here. They have limited the cars on the road, as one day is even for license plates, and the next day it is odd, as well as shutting down all of the factories in town. BUT STILL, give me a break! There has just been too much damage done to the environment out here to put a band-aid on it for a few weeks and expect the air to be as clean as Interlaken, Switzerland (greatest place on Earth). I really hope the Chinese government does not read this, because those pollution air index readings are bulls^&*! I keep hearing that the air quality has received a good reading for the day (via the "Chinese Daily News" which is a newspaper perfectly-suited for the stupid and gullible), and then I look out the window and see what appears to be a marine layer, and it is actually a thick stack of smog. My brethren, if you have ever complained about the smog in Los Angeles, please do not every voice your gripes to me. This is ten times worse! Bar none the worst pollution I have ever experienced. I hope that the plan for perfect air comes to fruition, and I have no doubt that China will do an excellent job with the Olympics, but I just don't buy the claims made about how clean the air is.
So back to the status quo. My regular day consists of work, the WU, I workout/play sports every day (I have few friends out here and seriously have nothing better to do, people ask me sometimes "why do you work out every day? Don't you have anything better to do?" And my reply is, "No, seriously I don'! LOL" A little Chinese tutelage, I hang out with a Chinese girl who is helping me, or I try to tutor myself, and then the cherry on top is a pirated DVD. I watched "The Dark Knight" on DVD, WOW! What a great movie. Also "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo", I thought was the funniest movie I have seen in a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time, and I watch a ton of movies. "Don't Mess With The Zohan", pretty damn good. But I also watch some awful movies, and if I ever see Cory Feldman I am gonna kick him square in the balls for making a sequel to "The Lost Boys". Cory Feldman, you just suck... That's all I am gonna say. You lived up to the deuchbagery that you displayed on "The Surreal Life" to a tee. Hang it up buddy, either that or morph yourself back into a ten year-old.
Well, I am gonna throw in the towel now. Take a walk around the city, look for some Chinese matching couples with my camera, and try not to get spit on. Hope you guys enjoy the pic I posted.
Five days until the Olympics,
Matt
I'm getting into the rhythm of the city these days. Where I live there is almost nothing to do, besides eating KFC, which of course is fantastic. I live in the financial district side of town, and there really is not anything Chinese about the place except for the maniacal taxi drivers and crooked cross-walks. So where I once took a taxi to and from work, I now take the taxi to work, but then walk through the college area of town called Wudaoko on the way back, and then ride the subway to home sweet home. The area in between is Wukaoko, or as most call it, "THE WU". And it is pretty sweet, makes me feel like I am alive again.
The WU is filled with everything good and bad that one can imagine. There are a plethora of street vendors hawking delicious and absolutely non-nutritious delicacies such as: chicken, lamb, or fish on a skewer, dumplings, sweet bread filled with all kinds of meat, and other tasty treats. All for an average price of two cuai, which is like thirty cents. Also, just in case anybody was wondering, the most popular type of store in China is everywhere in the WU. This would be the "cigarette shack", you cannot walk a block without seeing about five of them. They consist of a tiny space the size of a small storage shed packed with enough cigarettes to keep Keith Richards puffing for the next decade, and one salty owner/worker with a pound of dirt lodged between his/her fingernails, who has inhaled just one too many lung darts. There is a of load American pop music blasting from speakers in every which way, and to my despair Britney and the Backstreet Boys get more love than Wilt Chamberlain in his prime.
The streets are packed full of all kinds of people, I mean just about anybody and anything goes here. You have your alpha-males, you know what I am talking about, the Chinese meterosexuals are just mackin' and stackin' all over this place, carrying their Prada man-bags with the grace of a decadent lion on the hunt. There are fellow Caucasian expats from all over the bubble, seems that there are more from Europe than the States, but USA is well-represented. I see lots of Nigerians, who are also two years behind American culture, as they rock a lot of FUBU and old-school G-Unit stuff that you would rarely find in the States. And a ton of ABC's, and I am not talking about Another Bad Creation, but American Born Chinese, this is the group that I had previously been going out clubbing with, but this olde man just can't hang with that crazy crowd too much anymore. They just get too damn snackhoused (this would be a euphemism for drunk), and roll out to clubs where the music is so loud that your ears are ringing for the next two days, I mean they are cool peeps, I just can't and haven't hung out with them in a few weeks now because of the after-effects. These would be some of the types of people who hang out in the WU, but I am really just barely scratching the surface, anyone in their twenties with limited funds is well-represented in the WU. Also there are all kinds of cafes, bars, and other random stuff, the one that gets the most buzz is this speak-easy called Propaganda (no joke), which is supposed to be the spot on weekdays.
Anyways, the WU has put be back in a pretty good mood, and the Olympics are gonna be off the chains. It is hot out here too, has been over ninety degrees now for the last few days, and the weather report makes this seem like the way things will be for the foreseeable future. Mix in some humidity and smog, and you get the Beijing air pollution potion that is hell on earth for one's lungs. I would be very surprised if any Track & Field records are broken out here. They have limited the cars on the road, as one day is even for license plates, and the next day it is odd, as well as shutting down all of the factories in town. BUT STILL, give me a break! There has just been too much damage done to the environment out here to put a band-aid on it for a few weeks and expect the air to be as clean as Interlaken, Switzerland (greatest place on Earth). I really hope the Chinese government does not read this, because those pollution air index readings are bulls^&*! I keep hearing that the air quality has received a good reading for the day (via the "Chinese Daily News" which is a newspaper perfectly-suited for the stupid and gullible), and then I look out the window and see what appears to be a marine layer, and it is actually a thick stack of smog. My brethren, if you have ever complained about the smog in Los Angeles, please do not every voice your gripes to me. This is ten times worse! Bar none the worst pollution I have ever experienced. I hope that the plan for perfect air comes to fruition, and I have no doubt that China will do an excellent job with the Olympics, but I just don't buy the claims made about how clean the air is.
So back to the status quo. My regular day consists of work, the WU, I workout/play sports every day (I have few friends out here and seriously have nothing better to do, people ask me sometimes "why do you work out every day? Don't you have anything better to do?" And my reply is, "No, seriously I don'! LOL" A little Chinese tutelage, I hang out with a Chinese girl who is helping me, or I try to tutor myself, and then the cherry on top is a pirated DVD. I watched "The Dark Knight" on DVD, WOW! What a great movie. Also "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo", I thought was the funniest movie I have seen in a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time, and I watch a ton of movies. "Don't Mess With The Zohan", pretty damn good. But I also watch some awful movies, and if I ever see Cory Feldman I am gonna kick him square in the balls for making a sequel to "The Lost Boys". Cory Feldman, you just suck... That's all I am gonna say. You lived up to the deuchbagery that you displayed on "The Surreal Life" to a tee. Hang it up buddy, either that or morph yourself back into a ten year-old.
Well, I am gonna throw in the towel now. Take a walk around the city, look for some Chinese matching couples with my camera, and try not to get spit on. Hope you guys enjoy the pic I posted.
Five days until the Olympics,
Matt
3 comments:
Matt, your descriptions of Wudaokou brings back a lot of memories. I lived right around the corner from Propaganda but I think I only went there twice. It's quite the scene, but not really my scene. Another cool place is D22, down the street. I like how they often have live local punk rock bands. I think the owner is or was a finance teacher at Beida and has quite a history as some sort of international financier.
Matt, if you haven't yet, also check out Lush. It's an expat bar on the same street as Prop on the corner of, I think, Cheng Fu Lu (less than 2 blocks away). It's hard to find the first time - it's above a book store. You have to go into the book store and then take the steps inside. They have an English menu, decent food, and it's a fantastic place to meet fellow English speakers.
Hey matt...
reading your blog is like being in china ;)
and thanks for the add of svizzera
roland
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