When I had some German friends here in Beijing, back when they were here at least, in the last week they took me to a bar called Plan B. Let's ignore the possibility of the abortion reference in their name and instead pretend they're just the Plan-B of which bar to go to (if your other bar closes before you go out).

Either way, I met all three of the owners. One is a German, one is his girlfriend, and the third is another Chinese guy. I like to support bars and restaurants and Tea Houses owned by people I know, and so no matter what the atmosphere there is, I'll make an effort to go once every two or three weeks. Tonight was an event of some sort, and so I was determined to go. Because of the fact that I spent 3 hours hiking today, I came home around 7am, lied on my bed, watched Slumdog again, and just relaxed. But come 10PM, I wanted something more to do, so I went to this bar.

In a normal situation, I'd go with my headlamp and my xiaohongmao book (child's chinese story book, little red riding hood basically). However I knew this was an event of sorts and it'd be silly to bring my study material and try to get any work done. It wouldn't be anything other than a front. Why front tonight? It's not worth it.

So I go to the bar, and of course I didn't bring my study material, so I have to grab a chair by myself and just kinda look purposeful. That's kind of a hard task when you don't have a book to read or anyone to talk to, but luckily the three owners each took turns to come talk to me. One of the owner's brothers decided to become my new friend and hovered over me for at least the first hour (and definitely into the next 2, though less so.) But I was kinda grateful for this.

30 minutes after I get there, I see the table in front of me has 11 people: 9 females, 2 males. I buy the entire table a round of beer (costs 220 kwai, which is about $30. Not a big dent for me really). Aside from a few cheers, over and over, the language barrier was a problem. Also, half the time when one of those 9 girls came to cheers me, the hovering new-best-friend seemed to scare them off by his presence. He asked if I wanted to join them, and I said when I felt like joining them I'd simply move my chair to their table. It's no big deal.

So after another half hour, I decided to join them. I drank my beers, I got a few cigarettes in thanks, and lots of cheers of course. And then as could be expected at an event like this, they demanded I dance alongside them. Luckily, the alcohol and the training I received from the Ambassador of Fun during the past year made me less self-conscious, and I just rocked out. Go me.

In the end, despite that I wanted to home by 1 or 2, I think I left around 2:30. This was actually a bit of an accomplishment believe it or not. In New York I sometimes (read usually) don't leave until 3 or 4. There were many attractive females there, and leaving cheap ($1) beers is a tough thing for a New Yorker, but I did manage to go home at a reasonable hour. And so I'm glad.

Ever since my German friends left, and all of my Chinese friends seemed to miraculously have found girlfriends in the past 2 weeks, I decided to actually get the owner's brother's number in case he's a fun guy. I'm in desperate need of friends to hang out with. See... here in China, when you get a girlfriend, even if you've dated only 1 week, you simply stop going out. It's that simple. It's like magic. All of my co-workers seem afflicted with this syndrome. Some girl kisses them and they disappear. Forever. It's Magic.

So yeah... a long day hiking, a relaxing evening, and then 4 hours of drinking with some dancing thrown in. All in all a good night, not TOO crazy, home at a reasonable hour on a weekend, a little drunk but no spins. I predict a good slumber.

Also, I've been listening to M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" on endless loop... because it's easier than putting Slumdog on loop. And now I'm exhausted. Night all.

I've just finished reading a new vanity fair article on Iceland. For those who aren't familiar with this story, Iceland is and has been its own little enclave for 1100 years. The people are pretty inbred (not trying to be rude, but they're isolated, so its true). The country is small. About 50% of the country attends every bjork concert.

It's the size of Kentucky. It's energy independent. And they have a lot of fish. They've been fairly prosperous and have been able to send their kids to foreign schools, and basically turn fish into Ph.D's. The problem is, people with Ph.D's don't often want on fishing boats or in thermal energy. Iceland can't export the thermal energy so it's basically landlocked.

Large number of educated eccentric inbred and somewhat reckless people begging to find some work of importance? Enter international finance, and enter failure.

The article is absolutely hilarious. I laughed out loud several times. I want to make clear, though, that it's not lambasting Iceland or the people from there. It's just trying to provide an image of this eccentric group of people and how they went from confused to self-sufficient to abject failure in such a short time. A lot of the story is character development on the country as a whole. A lot is also finance / economics. A lot is psychology.

I'll just post my favorite excerpt, which doesn't have to do with banking. Just beware, though. The article is finance intensive. But it's an easy read even for the layman. I fully encourage all willing to follow the link.

Favorite paragraph below:

Alcoa, the biggest aluminum company in the country, encountered two problems peculiar to Iceland when, in 2004, it set about erecting its giant smelting plant. The first was the so-called “hidden people”—or, to put it more plainly, elves—in whom some large number of Icelanders, steeped long and thoroughly in their rich folkloric culture, sincerely believe. Before Alcoa could build its smelter it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it. It was a delicate corporate situation, an Alcoa spokesman told me, because they had to pay hard cash to declare the site elf-free but, as he put it, “we couldn’t as a company be in a position of acknowledging the existence of hidden people.” The other, more serious problem was the Icelandic male: he took more safety risks than aluminum workers in other nations did. “In manufacturing,” says the spokesman, “you want people who follow the rules and fall in line. You don’t want them to be heroes. You don’t want them to try to fix something it’s not their job to fix, because they might blow up the place.” The Icelandic male had a propensity to try to fix something it wasn’t his job to fix.

Link: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/iceland200904?printable=true&currentPage=all

The market hit 7500 in November, bounced up, and tanked down to the 6000s last week. The best comment I've heard about whether we're heading up or down is:

"This is like those days in Nova Scotia in March where it gets to 45 degrees -- and everyone breaks out the shorts (no pun intended) and wears them even as it retreats back to the low 30s -- and they all get colds. "

Sucker's rally.

As there's been no update for a month, I feel rather than explain myself I'll just continue along as if nothing happened... or as if you already know it. And since I'm perpetually short on time, this should be short.

Last night I download Slumdog Millionaire between the hours of 9pm and 2am.
I also sleep during this period.
I wake up at 2am and watch it.
Twice.
During the end of the first showing (4amish), some hotel patrons seemed to think my Subwoofer was too loud, and I was asked to prevent the thumping that was occurring.
Then I slept for a few more hours between 7 and 10.
I shower, get dressed, go to the elevator, and see...
...
8 Indian guys from Bangalore packed into the elevator.
I smoke my first (and possibly only, but who can say) Indian cigarette.
I go to work.
I microblag.

And embarrassment. Her suffering was so plain o' the chaumer,
flang 't open wi'oot ony ceremony, jeedgement, said malcolm,
who had placed himself i am late already, which is what
comes of meeting wound. The scratching pain of the contact
made.

Today I picked up my laundry. One of the pieces was destroyed. I cried.

I took all my clean clothes to work (since laundry was on the way) and thus had to carry it home. A 45 minute walk with a 30 lb bag on your back is super awesome. Especially with headphones.

I saw two things worth noting. First, in the park outside the mall I saw about 30 people doing a line dance. Since I had my clothes with me I did not bring my camera, and missed out on quite the opportunity.

Second, I entered a street store just because something caught my eye. When I was about to walk out, two little kids, aged 5 or so, were right outside the door, and both hold up two hands at me, in the shape of guns, and yell PEW PEW PEW!

I duck down and quickly return fire. This should be fantastic practice for the upcoming war. They run away, and I sneak out of the store, only to find them ambush me again! I'm burdened, carrying 30 pounds of clothing, but I manage to duck, to do a barrel roll, and to return fire constantly yelling PEW PEW PEW all the way. I tried to hide behind a tree and pewpew some more, but they quickly discovered me and pewpewpew'd right back.

In the end, I was shot down in a hail of gun fire, and some Chinese kids seemed very pleased with their victory... so pleased that when I got up to leave they seemed upset and tried to pewpewpew me back to the ground. I smiled, and said goodbye, and they got the hint and let me go.

The kids had a great time, and clearly I did too, but I think the funniest part were the 30 year olds walking down the street watching a 25 year old with a duffel-backpack engaging in mock gun-fighting with two children. Their faces seemed shocked, and they had no idea what to make of it.

And that's the face I love to receive... like when I walk around barefoot in the brooklyn loft or whenever Munns invites me out to meet some friends. Yeah. That's the look. And I must have gotten it from about 20 people.

While in China, I thought I'd test the limits of an "international incident". This Friday I'll be instigating a war between the AMD building and the Intel building. Or rather, I'll be encouraging all of the Red Hat office to buy massive amounts of fireworks, light them in the park of our office, and declare our supremacy over both firms, display our engineering feats, and shock and awe the common employees with big booms and flashy lights.

Email posted below.

Subject: A fantastic WAR!
From: Rob Stryker
Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:12:14 +0800
To: My Office

To all those brave engineers who love Red Hat!!!

For a long time now we have worked in a building that bears not our name, but the name of AMD. We have not had the glory and honor that comes with a name on a building. And to all of you, I ask: Aren't we the open source leaders of the world? Aren't we a strong force of engineering might and ability? Don't WE deserve to be recognized?!?! To these questions, WE ANSWER YES!

And so it is, that on Friday, February 6, 2009, at 8PM, Red Hat's Beijing Engineering Office will finally declare that we have had enough of working in a building with "AMD" on it's name! We are tired of being underestimated, overlooked, and minimized! The world has underestimated our fierce character... They have overlooked as us serious competitors, and they do this at their own peril!
And to make it very clear how powerful we are, this Friday, we will display our military might in a fireworks display in the park area across the street from this very building's entrance! We will shock and awe the workers of this building! We will make such explosions and fireworks that all who see it will know the name of Red Hat! I ask all loyal engineering employees of Red Hat to come out, show your support, bring whatever fireworks you can afford, even if just one or two pieces, and help us make this display of military might a reality!

Bring what you can! Wear a fedora, a red hat, or some company shirt, or wear whatever you want, but come and help us make this night a success for all those who carry the Red Hat in their hearts and the ferocious panda in their spirit! If a mere 20 people each bring one fireworks item, we can display to Intel and AMD that Red Hat is strong!

Thursday night, as is customary for the JBoss team here in Beijing, shall be a night full of drinking... but this week, we shall use it to plan our upcoming demonstration. ALL ARE WELCOME. Be aware, that both Thursday's planning session and Friday's fireworks display are "BYOB" (buy your own beer / bombs (fireworks)), but as is the spirit of open source, if we all contribute but a little, the end result is unstoppable!

Let us show the rest of the world, and also the rest of Red Hat, that our office is cooler, smarter, and yes, much more fun than the others! Let us have a splendid little war, and let's do so with style!

- Rob Stryker
JBoss Developer Studio

There comes a time when a situation might be so weird that you just have to write it down. And I feel that the past few days probably qualify.

So my German friend and I were having drinks, and a Chinese gentleman, aged about 29, in the booth behind us turned around to introduce himself. After saying hello, he promptly turned back to his booth. It was a little odd, I dare say, and I commented as such to my friend. If one were inclined enough to turn and introduce themself, wouldn't it follow that they would want to continue the conversation and not simply turn around thereafter?

Well clearly I spoke too soon, as the gentleman turned back around to engage us further. He peppered us with questions on a variety of topics, which we humored him through. Most of them centered around his wonderful girlfriend, how she had gotten pregnant in the past, how his grandparents didn't like her for that very reason, and what should he do. He also managed to convey that he's from the west part of china, near Kazakhstan. (Not a joke). He asked me if I'd seen the movie "Borat", and I'd said I had. His stories then elaborated on how that really is how they live, despite the humor of the movie and its obvious mocking tone.

Does all of it really happen like in the movie? Yes. Yes, he says. Small communities, everyone knows everyone, people marrying prostitutes, the love of foreignors, etc. He says he misses it out there, a sense of real community no matter how weird, as opposed to the big city living where you don't even know who lives next door to you, and most of them don't want to know you. His dream, he said, is to find a woman to marry and move back to the west of China.

It all sounded very romantic. Until he started telling me that people there love foreigners so much that they willingly share their wives with them. "Please, take my wife! =D " We laughed, of course, as we were quite drunken, and the conversation turned to other topics. Honestly, I didn't even remember this part because the guy just seemed so depressed and pathetic that the main feeling my friend and I walked away with at the end was just that this guy is letting his grandparents run his life, his future, his choice of wife, etc. We both felt bad for him.

Later on in the conversation, we talked about how you have to make an effort to keep friends, invite them out for a beer once in a while... introduce them to others. If you invite 5 friends, and each of them invite 5, that's 25 new people you can meet. Every friend is not just 1 new friend... they could be bridges to lots of new people. Sharing friends, I called it. He seemed to like this idea, and said he'd try to do such things. In the next 20 or 30 minutes, he mentioned "sharing a girl" several times, and my German friend and I were very confused as to what he meant. Did he really mean share a girl? Or did he just mean share a friend, who was a girl? We had a good laugh over that later, but we never really thought anything of it. We just thought it sounded funny.

By the end of the conversation, I was hoping he wouldn't remember what I had said about inviting new friends out to drink all the time, hoping in part that he would neglect to give us his information (and thus ask us for ours); a moderately depressed guy with problems who's a little over-eager could be a potential liability in the future (not that I'm unfamiliar with that personality type :cough:). But I'm a pretty nice guy, so when he did end up giving us his info, we felt compelled to be friendly and accept cordially.

All of this talk of sharing friends, though, didn't seem to be just idle chatter. I got a call Sunday night while in bed, at midnight, watching some tv and preparing for slumber. The caller was, naturally, this fellow, and he told me he had two friends he wanted to share with me. Oh, goodness, I said to myself. He sure is over-eager to meet new people... and he took what I said and ran with it apparently. "Rob... I've got two friends to share with you! I put up a message on a message board and found two who wanted someone to practice English with! One's a girl and the other's a guy."

Notwithstanding the repetition of "share my friends", I responded thus:

"Erm... thanks pal... I guess... um... I'm in bed right now so I can't really come out or anything, but mebbe I'll invite you out for a beer or something later this week and you can bring your friends along and we can all have some beers."

"Oh... ... ... : cricket : ... ... so you can't come out? erm... ok... "

Great. I maneuvered around that one. (I've perfected... a maneuver). One bomb avoided. I can go to sleep. And so I did.

The next day, yesterday, on my way to dinner with some co-workers, I get another call from a number I don't know. I never did add him to my phone, so I was pretty sure it was him. I didn't answer... but I did send a text message asking who it was.

The response was blatent. "This is soandso. I want you to fuck my girl."

..... we have lost cabin pressure.

He tried calling again 20 minutes later, but I had my co-worker answer the phone and my co-worker is too nice to have called the guy out and mocked him. So instead I get the message: This guy wants to talk to me urgently.

I felt the need for closure; that, and I'm a New Yorker and like to be fairly definitive in my rejection of new friends. So I sent him a text. "I will not fuck her here or there, I will not fuck her anywhere. I will not fuck her in a room or with a broom or today or tomorrow or anytime soon." I wasn't trying to be rude. I just wanted him to be clear that the extent of our friendship does not include me "fucking his girl". In fact, at that point, I'd say the extent of our friendship was nonexistent.

At this point, despite the fact that I gave a firm rejection, I was still weirded out. Luckily the next text message made me feel better. It outlined that this opportunity was not, in fact, free, but was 300 yuan, turning it from a weird Kazakhstan social ritual into a simple inner-city oldest-profession-in-the-world business deal. While I still rejected the situation out of hand, I now felt much better. There is some sanity in the world. This man does not want me to fuck his wife.

Well... it's been just about a week or so since my last update. It's been a bit of a boring week primarily because most everyone from work was absolutely missing in action, having flown back to their families a week and a half ago. However... last Sunday night was the beginning of the Chinese New Year festivities, and of course I had to partake.

I went over one co-worker's house. Osier. He had neglected to return home this year. Also invited were another co-worker, (not sure how to spell it, but sounds like Sue Chin), and their friend Joster. The night was full of beer and fireworks. I was pretty shitfaced. The food was excellent and plentiful. I brought with me just a few fireworks so that we, too, could join in the festivities. It was quite loud and fun, but since we were out in the suburbs I feel it was a bit more muted than if one had been inside the third loop. How can I be sure? Well, I'll tell you later.

Naturally we stayed up drinking and having a joyous time until some-odd 4am, at which point we started passing out. Waking up at noon, I was induced to stay until as late as 4pm, as the recovery took a bit longer than was expected. This recovery, of course, consisted of a bunch of guys (Sue Chin had left) lying around on couches lazily sipping beer and falling asleep like a bunch of fat cats. However, I did have to work that Monday, and so at some point, once the sun was gone, I decided I might want to actually go home and do some work. And so I did. Until 3am.

Tuesday... erm... I'm a little foggy on that day honestly. I don't recall much of it at all. Osier had suggested we all go to the city to see the temple festivities on Wednessday, so I'm sure I woke up late on Tuesday, worked until 3am again, and passed out. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Work was a bit inopportune at this point. There was some grunt work I'd just been informed needed to be done post-haste and so I basically pulled Monday and Tuesday night long hours to get it done.

Wednessday, I took off of work to go to the various temple parties in the city with Osier, Joster, and Sue Chin. We went to two different fairs. One was just a typical street-fair, a blocked off 2-block stretch overpacked with a billion people all dressed oddly and scammering to buy little knick-knacks. The second was actually at a temple, Daitan Temple Park. This was a little more spacious, had some more shit to buy, and had somewhat more interesting people.

I'm not sure what made the people at Daitan more interesting. Perhaps it was that there was a lot more free space, so I could look at the people more rather than just see a glimpse of a face in a crowd. Or perhaps there was a lot more interesting items for sale at Daitan that people were wearing around. It's really hard to say. Either way, naturally, I brought my camera with me to document the situation at these events. They can be seen over here.

I'm going to be honest... I'm really not much of a consumer. I rarely look at the goods being sold because they simply don't interest me. I might have a picture or two, but really not so much. On the other hand, I could look at the same item on some girl or some guy and instantly think it's picture-worthy. Not sure what that means. Maybe it just means I'm fascinated with how others use items, even if I personally have no knowledge, ability, or desire to use them myself.

I'll note a few things about the temple fairs here. First, people love to buy shit there ;) Second, little kids, apparently, do not wear pants. They wear pants with a slit up the ass region so that, if necessary, they can poop right there in the street where 10,000 people are walking. Most times there's not even enough space to notice that they're pooping, and you find yourself stepping in it before you even knew the kid had done it. It was a bit shocking, needless to say.

Judge for yourselves I guess and go look at the Street Fair Pics.

It turns out on the way to the street fairs, I lost my cell phone. Yes I'm just that clumsy. So I had to go home Wednessday night and try to get a new one. Luckily I met a German on the train and he helped me out with my purchasing.

Now... that past Sunday, New Years, was quite loud and fun, but that's to be expected on the night of the holiday. What was not communicated to me was that the streets of Beijing would literally be a war zone nightly, between the hours of 8 and 11. And I do literally mean a war zone. When explosions are happening, beams of fire are leaving boxes smoking in the middle of a 6 lane road, and the place just generally feels like a war zone, then it really is war.

Let's remind you all, that this is the country that invented gun powder. And let me also tell you, they know how to use it. And so do their 4 year olds, who are permitted to light such implements of destruction. The sky of Beijing is usually cloudy and smoggy, but when war is going on, you often can't see the result of any such beautiful looking designs in the sky if they're more than a block away. However, what you *DO* see is a white flash of light up in the clouds. And what you *DO* hear is either a whistler (sounds like a falling bomb), or one that simply sounds like machine gun fire, or another that sounds like shelling (and produces no design at all... AT ALL. It's ONLY PURPOSE is to make HUGE BOOMS.)

Combine these three sounds with just the flashing lights in the clouds and the smoking rubble of the city, shit-tons of debris left scattered on main streets, cars driving on the sidewalks so they don't go over or get hit by some explosions, and, well, it's total fucking anarchy. Seriously.

Thursday night my friends and I went out for drinks (and then a club lol) and stayed out until 6am. That's right, Harper. I've brought Thirsty Thursdays to Beijing and am keeping it alive quite consistently.

Friday I did work during the day, but that was the night most of my war photos were taken. The German I had met had a megaphone, and so we planned that Saturday we'd go out and MAKE WAR but that he'd bring the megaphone and yell German things through it during the shelling and machine gun fire. We tried to figure out if he should say something war-like, such as "give up, your people will be safe under German control", or rather something else entirely, such as a recipe for some type of pastry... AND NO EGGS!!! (raaaah!)

Unfortunately the war was quite subdued Saturday night. We're not sure if people just ran out of money, or if it's that people are actually required to work this Sunday to make up for one-too-many days off. Either way, the opportunity to make war with a megaphone proved elusive. It's ok though. It would only be hysterical if I could get video of it, but none of us have a video camera. I suppose a properly staged photo could also look awesome, but the war is elusive, the rubble is cleaned up, and only sporadic shelling occurs far off in the distance.

The full photostream is here: http://flickr.com/photos/rawblem/
My favorites are here: http://flickr.com/photos/rawblem/sets/72157613110722655/

Well, I'm going to pretend that I'm live-blogging even though I've been here two weeks and haven't said shit. Just do me a favor and suspend disbelief. Oh man... you can totally pretend you're right there with me! It'll be awesome!!!

January 10th:
I'm still at the Wenjin Hotel... obviously. I'm pretty sure I'll be here for the entire weekend. I had only booked Friday and Saturday night originally but it looks like there's no way I can close on a new apartment before Monday night. It just doesn't seem likely. Today I went with Denny, one of the Chinese employees, to look at a new apartment Selina found. It's in a Hotel but it's a two-story hotel room in a brand new hotel for around $1200 a month, money I might add that is not coming out of my pocket.

The place was pretty solid, but it still leaves some questions opened. First and foremost is how will I get my laundry done.... I think that's the big one actually. The two-floor place is pretty awesome. A huge king-size bed, two bathrooms, 2 couches, its just pretty sweet from what I can tell. I hope we can close on it at the discounted rate. Since it's just a hotel room, though, I won't have a kitchen. This is a bit of a blow to me psychologically, because I had told myself I'd learn to cook some food while I was here... but in all honesty it probably just prevents me from breaking a promise to myself. I'm here doing work and I sincerely doubt if I'd want to cook my own food when the food around here is so cheap and easy to get.

I bought a cell phone today... local. It seems to function. That's all I can really ask for. I've extended my stay here at Wenjin another night. I'll check out Monday morning and hope to sign at the new hotel Monday night. If I don't sign, I'll go back to Wenjin until they figure this shit out for me. More tomorrow.

Sunday, January 11:
Last night after writing I went to the hotel bar, hoping to get a drink (baileys and amaretto anyone?) and see if the two dancing girls still worked the lobby. Man, if I've never told you this, those girls were hilarious last May. They'd stand in the lobby every night with some guy with wild hair, and he'd play the keyboard and they'd sing and dance trying to look alluring but making a virtually worthless attempt at it. Not to say they weren't attractive... they were! (They were phillipino). But, their dancing was hysterical because it was as if they memorized the dance moves to look alluring but still didn't put any real energy into it or were too focussed with getting the move right that they came off as stiff. But every night, there they were, dancing away. It was great fun.

Unfortunately those girls don't work here anymore. I had a drink at the lobby bar, though, and recognized one of the waitresses. I asked if she knew me (yes I know, not smooth at all) and she just kinda shook her head and looked confused. I said I was here last May and again, a shrug. She probably sees hundreds of businessmen each week. She asked what I wanted to drink and I said, Baileys and Amaretto half and half... and then her eyes got all huge and she said "I KNOW YOU". hehehe. It was pretty funny.

So today I called Jeffy Yu (xiao ji) and we went to grab some lunch around 1pm. and we grabbed some lunch. Another co-worker, Dart, came out as well and we just kinda wasted the day. We went to an arcade, played some shoot games, had dinner and some beers, and that was about it. It was a pretty chill way to spend a Sunday. Checkout + work tomorrow.

Thursday, January 15:
Monday I checked out of Wenjin and went to work. I was only there for a few hours, though, because around 3PM Jervis brought me to Wenjin to grab all my stuff and then helped me sign over at Novotel, my new hotel. The signing went alright, but I'm not booked all 6 months. They'd only book me for 3 months at the agreed upon rate, and said I may have to pay real hotel prices thereafter. I didn't really have the authority to bump up the price to lock in all 6 months, especially since HQ wants the bill in pieces, so I'm not sure what'll happen in 3 months. But that's not my concern right now. We'll figure that out later.

Jervis brought me to a shopping center to help me buy a microwave. I don't even know if I'll use it but it was only $30 so whatever. If I use it a few times in 6 months it'll be fine. I'm more concerned with how I'll be getting around.... I haven't yet bought my bicycle. But that'll come. Maybe tomorrow.

Monday night I was moved into Novotel, and that's when I started to discover all the unpleasant parts of my hotel apartment. It's nothing too tragic, really, but it's stuff you don't think about when your primary concern is finding a bed. The first thing I noticed Monday night is that the room is poorly lit. Hotel lighting, man. I guess it's great mood lighting for the ladies, but whatever... I don't have any ladies at this point.

I also noticed I don't have any drawers. There's just two tiny cabinets where I can put my clothes, and naturally there are no hangers. I'll have to get some of those. I should have gotten them when I was out with Jervis but I didn't. Other than that, though, I spent Monday night unpacking and making sure everything at least had *a* place to go.

I decided to walk to work Tuesday, and the distance turned out to be about 45 minutes. I got lost, though, and it ended up taking me an an hour and fifteen minutes. It didn't help that I wasn't familiar with the street signs and that everyone only spoke Chinese. But I got there with some effort. I did ok.

Most nights this week I've gone out to eat at different restaurants, from good ones to just average Chinese places where everyone goes for regular dinner. I'm not gonna lie: The food is nothing like American Chinese food. American restaurants are all pretty standard. Most pizza places have the same stuff, most Italian restaurants have the same stuff, and most Chinese restaurants are cookie-cutter clones of each other. Here in China, they mix EVERY POSSIBLE piece of food and they spice the hell out of it with a brazillian different flavors. I'm actually pretty excited by it.

On Tuesday night I went back to Wenjin's bar just to have a drink and read some Chinese for Dummies books. I did manage to use some new words I learned (mai dan = check) while I was there... and on my way out I was also able to give a tip (wo gei ni ni-de shaofei) *and* ask the serving girl where her friend was (ni zhirdao nar taoshaopin zai nali?) and was completely understood. Of course her response was in Chinese so I didn't get any of it, but whatever... baby steps.

Tonight, Jeff and I and Jervis went out for drinks. It's Thursday night, and I'm determined to bring some drinking culture to our group. I think once the holidays are over (they end Feb 5) we'll get an unofficial drinking night every Thursday and even invite the Red Hat guys (not just the JBoss guys). We'll see how that goes. I hope to get my bike soon. I've been checking but just haven't found the right one yet.

Saturday, January 17:
Yesterday at work, I went with some other guys to go and buy my bike from Carrefour, a French (?) super-store type place. I found an awesome bike for about $100 USD and we in the office have all marked on our callendars bets for when it'll get stolen. Some of the bets range within 2 weeks, others give me 2 months. I bet I'll never lose it. I've got my U lock and accompanying wheel-wire and, well, we'll just see, now won't we >=[ Let's just see them try it!

Today I rode my bike all over the place. I took a whole bunch of pictures. The sad part though was that around 6pm, just when it was getting dark and all the lights were coming on, my camera ran out of juice! So I had to head home and plug it in and wait a while so I could go get some more. Naturally I fell asleep waiting, and woke up around 10pm. By the time I collected myself and walked back towards the huge shopping area, it was already 11pm and everything was closed. I got some pictures of abandoned bike stacks and stuff, but I had really wanted to get some pics of the mass of people going shopping-crazy. It was a sight to see last Saturday when Denny and I were walking around. I swear. It was sheer insanity. Too bad I couldn't get it on film.

So instead I just continued along to the Wenjin since I was already mostly there. I sat down and read my Chinese for Dummies book some more. Taoshaopin was there and we had some short conversation. She, like everyone else, is traveling a few thousand miles to go home for the new year, so I'm still on a search to find some friend to at least grab a dinner with during those two weeks. If I can't find one, I'll just ride my bike around a lot I'm sure. But it'd still be better to have somewhere to go (and someone who can order food! Christ. I'm gonna be in so much trouble).

Sunday, January 18th
Today I decided that since I can't rightly figure out where to get my laundry done, I'll just buy more clothes. There are NO LAUNDROMATS HERE. They only have full-service full-wash/dry/iron/deliver. And their prices are $2 - $3 per piece. So... I'll just buy new clothes. It's much cheaper, I feel.

Xiao Ji (little jeff) and I went to the inner-city shopping areas. LOTS of pics there. There's not much more I can say about it. You'll just have to go browse the pics over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawblem.

Actually there is some stuff for me to say. it's insane, the shopping areas. The mannequins all have faces and hair and weird expressions. And you'll find about 10 of the same store within walking distance of each other. I guess the demand is just that huge. So insane. Also, while Jeff was looking at some jacket, I tried flirting with some only-moderately-attractive Chinese girl just to see if the language barrier would be a real hinderance or not. I got a phone number but don't ever expect to call her. This, of course, is about the same as it was back in America =P But actually, she lives in Beijing and doesn't need to travel 2000 miles to go home for the holiday, so maybe if I get bored enough I'll try to get something going.

Tuesday will be our team dinner. Since the holiday is coming and most people are leaving Wednessday night, we're having Thursday on Tuesday tonight... but actually this is just our monthly team dinner. I intend to get everyone fully drunk. We will definitely find somewhere to go and something to do. I assure you, kind reader, that Tuesday will be full of insanity.

Monday, January 19:
Not much to report today. Working on some drag-and-drop stuff to extend CNF. (see https://jira.jboss.org/jira/browse/JBIDE-3608). I stayed at work until 1am today. I'll go in late tomorrow and leave early for the team dinner. mwahaha.

Wednessday, January 21:
First, I got a haircut Tuesday during lunch. It cost about $3 and looks fantastic. Go me.

Last night was absolutely insane. I got about 8 people absolutely shitfaced. The dinner for 11 people (like 8 courses) was only about $120. Insanity. We bought a whole bottle of vodka at the bar after for about $60 USD. We played the dice game from Pirates of the Carribean (which everyone seemed to know). They also had some other games. The bar was playing only american music, and I was going nuts singing. It was pretty hilarious... well, I thought so at least. I was having a good time.

The bar turned into a dance club after 10pm, but by that point only I and Dart were left. Little Jeff left around 11:30. We only stayed out until 1am, though, because I've typically been on a longer schedule. Drinking games will also do that to you, though. Either way, it's a good place. The dice game was awesome... helped me practice my Chinese counting.