Going to the Olympics...

We are now about one week away from Olympic madness swarming the city. The excitement (and frustration) can be felt everywhere you go. Just this week the final tickets went on sale. Tickets that were designed to be sold over three days were gone in one. I had been hoping to snag some tickets to see the US play China in baseball. Alas, every last ticket sold out. But thanks to my good American buddy, Ebay, I just minutes ago snagged up three tickets to the game. They cost a lot more than they would have if I had gotten them at the window, but how many more chances in my life will I have to attend the Beijing Olympics?

Beijing 2008- One World, One Dream

Food, Books, Coworkers, and Kids....

The past two days have been really fun. Lastnight I went out to eat with Steve and Kay Griffin, a couple from Houston, MS I met at church a few weeks ago. They are on a 3 month vacation in Beijing and are hoping to move here permanently as teachers. We went to Peter's Tex Mex Grill, although Tex Mex was a small part of the menu. It was basically just an all around American restaurant, similar to The Dinner Bell or Martha's Menu. I had grilled chicken with mashed potatos, broccoli, and sauteed mushrooms. It was good to sit down and have an American meal with a truly American couple, just down home country folks. Afterwards I did some grocery shopping at the nearby Jenny Lous grocery, an American style grocery. I bought every can of Dr. Pepper they had on the shelf as well as some other "can't live without it" items.

This morning, myself and two of my EF coworkers, Carol and Zack, took the subway over to Wangfujing, a modern shopping area in Beijing. We visited a food street, which is basically a street lined with food stands. All the food is fresh and cooked to order. There is everything from shish kebabs, vegetables, soups, noodles, roasted corn on the cob,and scorpions and seahorses on a stick. Kind of like the state fair in Jackson (well except for the scorpions and seahorses on a stick) We each had a bowl of noodles before walking through a small open air market selling mostly cheap plastic junk. I stopped at one stand selling cheaply made magic tricks. The man demonstrated the linking rings and a svengali deck for me. He wanted 165 yuan for the linking rings (about 24 dollars). They were the cheapest and worst set I had ever seen. Zack offered him 5 (less than 1 dollar), probably what they are worth.

We then wandered on to the Foreign Language Bookstore. This is a massive bookstore filled with 5 floors of books, music, and movies. I was in desperate need of some reading material to fill the time that I would usually spend watching King of the Hill and Family Guy reruns on tv. I picked up three good books. While we were in the store, three Chinese boys, probably about 7 or 8 years old ran over to us and were just amazed that me and Zack were foreign. They wanted to converse with us, but since neither me or Zack are fluent in Chinese, our conversation was pretty much limited to "Nei Hao" (Hello) and smiling. One of the boys told Carol (who is Chinese) for me and Zack to talk to her and then she could translate for us. Smart kids. When they left, they ran off yelling "Welcome to Beijing" in Chinese. It was enough to make the most hard hearted American tourist smile.

Now, I am home for the day until I go to work tomorrow. I think I will have some Chef Boyardee and Dr. Pepper now.

China Mobile, Hey where you at Wong?

If you get that above joke, please email me and let me know.

China Mobile is a company that runs cellular service in China. You subscribe to a monthly plan and then to pay for it, you have to buy a prepaid card. The prepaid cards are really hard to find even though the stores are everywhere. The other night I walked into TWO different China Mobile stores and asked for a phone card. Neither store had one! I finally found one this morning at a newsstand. Why aren't China Mobile cards available at China Mobile stores?

A Strange Trip...

On Wednesday, all of EF's Beijing centers closed down and the entire staff was taken away to a team building retreat at a hot springs "resort." This was the strangest place I have ever visited. There were all of these weird Chinese art decorations everywhere. At night they were lit up and some of them even moved. They were scary; I saw one Chinese child run away screaming and in tears after his parents made him watch one of them.

I really can't describe them so here are some pictures:

What were our rooms like? Well, they were basically dorms. Some people also lived here. When trying to find my room I walked into the wrong one. Turns out it was someone's house. I got chased out by a little short Chinese lady. In the room there was a menu of massage services.

There were several hot springs pools around the place. One of them was a very beautiful outdoor type swimming pool. There was also a really nice indoor pool (which I never had the chance to visit.)

Here is the outdoor pool:

That above pool is quite beautiful. But nothing could have prepared me for the smaller pool:

There was a second children's pool with a statue of a boy peeing.

We had some interesting meals. The meals were served family style and consisted of a variety of meats and vegetables, fish with the head still on, that sort of thing.. I ate mostly rice. It appeared safest of all the food. While waiting on lunch to begin EF teacher Zach suggested we play Indian poker. You stick a card to your forehead and base your bet on what other people's cards are. Here are some pictures from the game and the meals:

In closing, here is a picture of a bird who was out strutting his stuff. He took time to pose for the camera:

Smallville in Beijing...

I was off today so I decided to make the trek over to Shunyi district and visit a cafe I had read about called Smallville. I was desperately craving some greasy American food (besides KFC) and a cafe that promised a comic book and superhero theme named after my favorite tv show had to be the place for me.

It was quite a ride over there. I took the subway to what I thought was close and took a cab from there. Turns out the cab was still 90 yuan. (about 12 dollars). I took a cab all the way back home and it was cheaper coming back! Well anyway, it was a bit out of the way, but how could I pass up this opportunity?

Shunyi is where primarily foreigners live. It is like America in Beijing. I could see the benefit of this, but why move to China to live in the U.S.? Plus you are so far away from everything. Shunyi is home to most of the international high schools, an option I have been told would be a good job for me to pursue with my teaching experience.

I finally made it to Smallville. Here is the sign:

Upon entering the cafe, I was greeted by an encouraging sign:

(Christ is the head of this house, Amen)

Shunyi is home to one of the larger expat churches, River of Grace. It is a charasmatic/pentecostal type of church. I assume the owners must go there. There were also free River of Grace taxi card books in the restaurant. Taxi books are a must for foreigners. They are full of cards with addresses of places written in English and Chinese (restaurants, churches, attractions, etc.) You show the card to the taxi driver and he can take you there based on the address. It helps when you don't know the language!

After this I was immediately greeted by the comic book posters. I found it strange that in a cafe named Smallville, most of the posters were Marvel comics and Superman is a DC comic. Oh well, it was a geek's heaven anyway.

Next I sat down and was ready to order. The menu was basic greasy diner fare (perfect). All the dishes were named after comic characters. There was the Joker-pancakes, sausage or bacon; Ironman- eggs, potatos, toast, bacon; The Hulk burger; It's a bird, it's a plane, it's grilled chicken; The Avenger-eggs, pancakes, potatos, toast, bacon or sausage; The Penguin- omelet with bacon/sausage;Milkshakes (Holy Cow Batman!); I had the steak and eggs, also known as Daredevil:

Did I enjoy myself? Yes. Would I go back? Probably not, unless some of my comic geek friends came to town. It is just too far away. The food is good, but there are similar American style diners much closer. This one just happens to be the only one with a comic book theme. Plus it's tough to get a cab in Shunyi back. The cabs just don't drive through this area on regular basis. I finally got one after about 15 minutes of waiting, as opposed to about 2 in the city itself.

Somebody save me.....

Beijing International Christian Fellowship...

Again, a church visit in the style of the Mystery Worshipper from http://www.ship-of-fools.com/

The church: Beijing International Christian Fellowship, Zhong Juan Cun Location, Beijing, China

Denomination: Inter-denominational. (There are no denominations in China.)

The building: The church is located Raycom Technology Park, Building C, a modern office building in Zhong Juan Cun. They rent offices here to use for Sunday School and meet for worship in an auditorium across the hall.

The church: The congregation is an organization of ex-patriate Christians (Christians living outside their country of citizenship) from around the world. Beijing International Christian Fellowship is the largest of the several ex-pat churches in Beijing with campuses in three locations and a multitude of small groups. The church probably has about 2000 worshipping in the various locations.

The neighbourhood: The Zhong Juan Cun area of Haidian district is known as Beijing's Silicon Valley. It is where to go if you work in technology or are looking to buy a computer. It is also the area of the city where I work.

The cast: The church is led by elders and deacons so there is no specific pastor. It is very much a hands on congregation with members volunteering in what would normally be paid leadership roles. Several different people led including a worship team that consisted of instrumentalists and three singers. The preacher was Charlie Brainer.

The date & time: Sunday, 6 July, 2008 10.00 am

Size of Congregation: Aproximately 200 or so, The church has just gone from a 2 service schedule to one service for the summer. The plan is to go back to 2 services once the Olympics start.

Did anyone welcome you? Someone at the door handed me a bulletin and said hello. Later an elder approached me and asked to assist in the offering taking up. I said it was a hands on church. No waiting to put you to work here!

Describe the Sanctuary: It was an auditorioum with blue padded chairs with plastic backs. Comfortable enough.

Pre-Service Atmosphere: People were talking and getting to know one another..

Opening Words of the Service: Are you ready to sing praises to him?

Books Used: None used. Words were projected onto a screen. Scripture was printed in the bulletin. This is definitely a BYOB church (bring your own Bible)

Musical Instruments: Keyboard, Acoustic Guitar, Violin

Worship Style: Blended worship with contemporary songs and classic hymns. Had a very Hillsong feel to it. The congregation was into the worship, but not too much. As Gary Maze so eloquently put it one time when describing Horizon Community Church, it looked like Baptists having church in an office building. There was plenty of time for prayer including a guided prayer for foreign missions in the Dominican Republic.

Sermon Length: 25 minutes

On a scale of 1-10, how good was the preacher? 5, His content was good, but a little hard to follow

Sermon Topic: Grace as explained in the 6th chapter of Galatians. God's grace empowers us to serve others. This is a very Bible centered church. Next week they start a series on the 7 churches of Revelation.

What part was like being in heaven? It seemed much like heaven: many nationalites all gathered together to worship. There were Africans, Chinese, Americans, etc.

Did anyone speak to you after the service? It really is a small world. Early in the service visitors were asked to stand and introduce themselves telling where they were from. When I said Mississippi I noticed an older couple smiling at me. It turns out they are from Mississippi (Houston to be exact) in Beijing on a 3 month visit. They are hoping to move to Beijing permanently. I never knew I would come to Beijing and meet someone from Houston, MS.

After Service Coffee? There was coffee available from a nearby Starbucks imitation shop. I didn't have any. They brought some over on a trolley to serve to the congregation "at special prices for BICF attenders!"

Would you make this your church home? Baesed on where I live, this is my best option. A cab there is 12 yuan (less than 2 American dollars) and it is close to work and since I work on Sunday afternoon, it is convenient.

Did this service make you glad to be a Christian? Yes

What is one thing you will remember most? Praying for the Dominican Republic and meeting Mississipians in Beijing.

Apartment Pictures...

By request, pictures of my apartment. I did not do the decorating. It came that way.

Kitchenette

TV and Computer Area

Living and Bed Area- I need a chair.


Bathroom With Pants Hanging To Dry