First Adventure - 20 May

So, I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but we are a group of about 25 ppl. Either we all get along (which I think so really well) or we are scared to venture out in smaller groups, but before this week we were basically inseperable. We were going everywhere in such a large group. Yesterday (today for you!) I heard some of the guys were looking into exploring the Underground Revolution City - which was built about half a century ago, completely underground (I believe by Mao) so that about 1/4 of the city could live underground if there were an invasion by Japan. The underground city contained malls, playgrounds, schools, houses, etc. everything needed to function. They worked on it for 10 years. Anyway, today it is able to be seen. So myself and 4 of the guys set out on our first subway ride here (for some guys it was there first subway ride ever) and tried to find the place.

Beijing's subway is not set up like it is in London or the States. They basically have a line that goes north-south, a line that goes east-west, a circle around the first ring of the city and then this loop that happens to come by our university. So we walked about 20 minutes to the Subway station, paid our 2 yuan (about 30 cents) and started the journey. Along the way, the pollution became so bad we felt we were breathing in pure dust. OUr throats felt scratchy and our lungs were tight. It is an interesting experience to look out into the city and realize you can't see the building 100 m away because of smog. (later we found out that there had been a sand storm in the city while we were out). AFter changing subway lines and arriving as close to our destination as possible, we set out to find the place.

Finally, we found it only to find it closed. So, since the pollution/breathing had become so bad, we decided to go into this mall that was close to the subway station we were near. The boys also decided to eat at Pizza Hut (which is NOTHING like ours). The Pizza Hut in China has pizza, calamari, onion rings, fries, beer, all types of tea, and other samplings of stuff. AFter navigating the subway and realizing it was rush hour (which is a NIGHTMARE in the tube), we decided to take a taxi back, even though the ride would probably be 20 times the price of our subway ticket.

This is the main reason I decided to write all this.... having to split into two cabs (each cab only accomodates 4 ppl), myself (Charlie and Malcolm) had the best taxi ride ever and our first true long experience speaking Chinese. The cab driver was more friendly than any other I had encountered and we were told the most language you would learn would be with taxi drivers. For the first time, this cab driver spoke some English, so when we hit a language barrier he was usually able to say a word that helped with the context of the sentence. He wasn't as far along in his English studies as we were in Chinese, so the majority of the cab ride was spoken in Chinese. It was so great to just work on the tone of a sentence (especially since the tone for some words changes in the context of a sentence). It was also great just to understand and respond. We learned another phrase for "you get it or you understand it" He tried to tell us about a song with the music of jingle bells that contained verses about Mao, Marx, Lenin, Stalin and another communist leader, but that was the biggest thing we didn't quite understand. All in all, the 60 yuan (less than $10) cab ride was well worth the money spent so that we could have more than an hour of full conversation with a local.

I'm so happy to have such a drastic change in learning curve after being in the country. Please continue to pray for the victims of the earthquake. They believe the final death toll will be more than 50,000 ppl. Love to all! since I am awake at 5 AM, I need to study before class - quizzes everyday! (I'm also trying to not get a full blown cold, even though I can't figure out if it is really a cold or my body trying to expunge all the pollution!)

Much love!