Haven't blogged since I got here in Beijing. I've been here for already four days and so far, I've been freezin by butt here. I'm wearin four layers of clothes and I'm still freezin to the point that I can't feel my hands anymore. Been to a few places and all I can say is that my feet REALLY hurt. But amidst the fatigue, we really had fun.

Today is the get together at the Philippine Embassy with all the Pinoys here in Beijing. I saw a lot of people that I know back home. It was fun. We almost got lost, again, thank God we met this American who showed us the way to the Embassy.

March 31, 2005

We had our placement tests today. Among the four of us (Valerie, Jac, Ailyn and me), I was the only one who hadta take the test at Run Run Shaw Bldg. The rest are in the same buildin but different rooms. Bein the loner that I am, I went up five flights of stairs (yes, they don't have elevators), found my room and sat down to wait for the teacher. After the teacher arrived, he gave us a piece of paper with chinese characters written in five columns. We were supposed to write the ping yin equivalent of the characters. I had absolutely no background on that, all I was taught was the "quo yin" so I hadta ask the teacher if I can use that instead. Thank God he agreed or I would've scored 0 in that test.

After I finished with the test, I took the 5 minute walk back to the dorm, half walkin half runnin in an attempt to keep warm. No exaggeration, I felt as if my nose and hands were about to fall off. Add my ears to that.

We decided to go to Summer Palace after eatin lunch. Here is a description of the place that I got from the map.

Located in the northwest suburb of Beijing, this is China's best preserved imperial garden famous for its scenery and cultural relics. It consists mainly of Wanshou (Longevity) Hill and Kunming Lake. The garden was burned by the allied British-French troops in 1860. From 1885 to 1895, empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) of the Qing Dynasty had it restored with fund intended for naval development. Since Dowager Cixi lived and attended to the state affairs here during the summers, the place also derived the name of Summer Palace. Renshou Hall near the East Gate used to be where the Emperor Guang xu and Empress Cixi received diplomatic envoys. Behind this hall are three large courtyards connected with corridors, called Leshou House, Yulan House, and Yiyun House, which were the residence of the emperor, the empresses and concubines. Other places in this vast garden are for the recreation of the royal family, including the Grand Theatre in Dehe Garden, the 700m Long Corridor, the Temple of Buddhist Virtue in front of Wanshou Hill, the Marble Boar, Xiequ Garden, Suzhou Street, the Dragon King Temple, and the Seventeen-arch Bridge. About 40,000 pieces of cultural relics are on display in the main halls and rooms, giving the garden a name "Museum Park."

Sounds nice diba? Just think that the emperor used to house all his concubines in one place.

Trivia: The whole place looks ayt in the map (to be posted later on), but it took us four and a half friggin hours of constant walkin to get to the other exit! We gave up a few times but decided against it coz it would be easier to just walk on than go back. By the time we saw the exit, we were really excited to end the tour!

But I tell you, the place was sooo nice! The flowers are just startin to bloom. Pics to be posted later on. :p

April 1, 2005

We woke up at around 10am and got ready to go Tiananmen Square. After takin the right bus, we got lost at the area and so decided to just meet Karen, Val's friend, and her friends. We went to this buildin just like Greenhills where you can haggle for the price. I was shocked when they made kwento about how you can get a 150 yuan shirt for only 50 yuan! So we went around and I saw this really cute pair of pants. I asked for the price and the gurl told me it's 190. I told her it's too expensive, and she asked me how much I want it for. I decided to be really barat and told her I want it for only 30 yuan. She doesn't wanna sell it to me at that price so me and my friend walked away. Just as we were nearin the exit, she called me back and gave it to me for, guess what, 30 yuan! GRABE! Sucha bargain! I also bought a body bag for 35 yuan (orig price is 90 yuan). I can really see myself goin overboard on the shoppin part. hehe

The food is also great but the weather's so cold that it always happens that the first bite is hot and the second bite is already cold. I tried the lamb fillet with spices (1 yuan) and it was yummy! Val tried the strawberry crepe for 5 yuan (pic to be posted later on again). After shopping and gettin wet in the rain, we decided to take up Lawrence's offer to go to Hou Hai which is suppposed to be like Greenbelt but with a lake but we got lost goin there and decided to just go home and try it another time.

This week was really tiring and my feet felt like they got no more blood left in them. Every step now makes me wince.

And we're goin shoppin tomorrow. Good luck to me!