1st day in Beijing
I was supposed to arrive in Beijing on the 19th, but I was very foolish and missed my flight. In an attempt to avoid
paying “foreigner prices” once more, I spent a long time haggling with different taxi drivers (or rather Linh did,
because she speaks Vietnamese). By the time I settled on one (which wasn't a particularly good deal), it was very late,
and despite some particularly insane driving, I did not make my flight. So I purchased another $300 ticket to Beijing
for the next day, and walked down the road and stayed at the airport hotel. Lesson learned: don't haggle over a few
dollars when you need to get to the airport.
So I'm finally here now, more or less settled in my dorm room. As soon as I got to the airport yesterday, there was excitement. I needed to kill a few hours until the Princeton in Beijing (PiB) bus would arrive to take me to the Beijing Normal University campus, where I'll be for another 8 weeks. I was hungry, and had the choice between KFC (“kěn dé jī”) and Starbucks (no chinese name!), and I chose a smoked salmon sandwich at the latter. No sooner had I sat down and started munching on my sandwich than a police officer pulled police tape across the entrance to Starbucks, and one of the other patrons suggested that I not sit near the door.
I looked up to see that someone had left a purse near the area where arrivals clear customs, and apparently the police suspected said purse to contain a bomb. At first I watched the spectacle along with the staff and other patrons of Starbucks. After a few minutes of this, but luckily after I had finished my sandwich, a police officer came in and ordered the establishment evacuated. So we all left, walking along the edge of the police line. Once back outside the Starbucks, I got to peek through the crowd that was forming to catch a glimpse of the bomb-squad and their robots. I didn't stick around to watch exactly what happened, but eventually the crowd cleared, and I saw the purse was gone. Here are some pictures of the incident:
Here's a picture of the police officers overseeing the evacuation of the starbucks:
Here's a blurry picture of the bomb squad robot in action:
In 30 minutes I have my placement exam. I hope it is not too stressful. I have no idea what level they'll place me in. I don't know how Berkeley's Chinese program compares to Princeton's, and I also don't know how much I've retained, since I haven't studied Chinese for more than 5 weeks now. Anyways, I'd rather be in too low a level than too high.
This is my roommate:
His name is Randy. His Chinese name is Lǐ Rán (李然）. He's pretty cool. Like most people here, he's an undergraduate at Princeton.
So I'm finally here now, more or less settled in my dorm room. As soon as I got to the airport yesterday, there was excitement. I needed to kill a few hours until the Princeton in Beijing (PiB) bus would arrive to take me to the Beijing Normal University campus, where I'll be for another 8 weeks. I was hungry, and had the choice between KFC (“kěn dé jī”) and Starbucks (no chinese name!), and I chose a smoked salmon sandwich at the latter. No sooner had I sat down and started munching on my sandwich than a police officer pulled police tape across the entrance to Starbucks, and one of the other patrons suggested that I not sit near the door.
I looked up to see that someone had left a purse near the area where arrivals clear customs, and apparently the police suspected said purse to contain a bomb. At first I watched the spectacle along with the staff and other patrons of Starbucks. After a few minutes of this, but luckily after I had finished my sandwich, a police officer came in and ordered the establishment evacuated. So we all left, walking along the edge of the police line. Once back outside the Starbucks, I got to peek through the crowd that was forming to catch a glimpse of the bomb-squad and their robots. I didn't stick around to watch exactly what happened, but eventually the crowd cleared, and I saw the purse was gone. Here are some pictures of the incident:
Here's a picture of the police officers overseeing the evacuation of the starbucks:
Here's a blurry picture of the bomb squad robot in action:
In 30 minutes I have my placement exam. I hope it is not too stressful. I have no idea what level they'll place me in. I don't know how Berkeley's Chinese program compares to Princeton's, and I also don't know how much I've retained, since I haven't studied Chinese for more than 5 weeks now. Anyways, I'd rather be in too low a level than too high.
This is my roommate:
His name is Randy. His Chinese name is Lǐ Rán (李然）. He's pretty cool. Like most people here, he's an undergraduate at Princeton.