Another TWiT (this week in Tsinghua)... is in the can

Actually, there are still some homework left to be done in the weekend. But other than that, the week's been quite chilled both in workload and in temperature :/

Last Sunday I went to have a lunch with the TV station crew, outside campus. And you know the saying what goes around, comes around? Well, didn't I just write about me terminating the relationship with the Man upstairs. But as I followed the crew into the fray of what is known as the Beijingese traffic (ok I'm overly dramatic again, gonna tone it down a bit...), cold shivers began to run through my back. Haven't I been here before? Yes! This ONE time of the week when the Christian folk is meeting, we're going to have a lunch - in the same restaurant!

But, I think it went well. I sat at such an angle that the others couldn't recognize me, and I'm pretty sure they won't take a second look at what had been a bunch of college kids having craploads fun. Just check the picture on the right if you don't believe me :P TAKE THAT, DAD (I know you aren't reading but if you had, that's for you), I'm having my own fun! Ah, just gotta love these people.

Even Mel* came there. But turns out she's already got a boyfriend... mmh that explains a thing or two. Anyways, it seems that the whole station is full of gossiping or then it's just the Chinese people being different, but like the main topic through the lunch was who is whose bf/gf and who's got a crush on whom and I got to teach them how to say 'I love you' in Finnish... yay. For some reason, they forgot to invite Cindy there. I guess she's still unofficially in the ranks? Huh, beats me. And beat me she did, at the game pool, to which I took her playing this week. But hey, exciting news, she's single! Although according to her own words, she warms slowly... so don't get your hopes high!

Meanwhile, the midterm time draws near but apparently I still don't have exams for at least a week. I'm not even paying that much attention to school lol. These courses are quite easy to pass, and the professors give lots of points just for trying. One thing is annoying, though, and I already briefly touched that subject. It's the cold! In Finland, at least the apartments and rooms are well insulated but here, I'm freezing my ass off. There is a central heating, but it's not on yet (government controlled stuff apparently), so I'll just have to shiver more for at least a week or so.

Anyway, lots of love to the folks back at home, hope you haven't forgotten about me and keep on commenting! :)

*) If you didn't get it, please refer a few posts back. The names are in the title, can't really miss it.

Autumn or fall

Whichever way you call it, it is here. Leaves turn to yellow. Leaves fall. Another year is over and the nature is bracing for the apparently cold, dry and windy winter of Beijing. Especially cold and windy after rainfalls, that's what I've learned by bitter experience.

Thanks for all the comments on my previous post, looks like there really *are* people following my blog, which was a bit of a surprise to myself :) Well, now I know I have an audience, which kinda puts more pressure on myself too.

I've noticed that after the first eight weeks (or the first half of the semester), my weekends will be extended to four days long, as I will only have classes from Monday through Wednesday. I'm thinking I should use the remaining weekends effectively and go traveling around China whenever I'm not swamped by cases or doing some Tsinghua TV channel gigs.

For that, I'm open to suggestions and might actually listen to your ideas so if you'd like to see some places, I can go check them for you.

Forgive me Father, for I have... Melissa, Cindy and Gertrude!

Meh, note to self: Don't try crazy bike jumping tricks while going against this huge torrent of bikers riding to the opposite direction. Result: Only a dropped chain this time, luckily. No human casualties, just had to play grease monkey for a while.

Now, to offer you guys back at home new update on things, shall we? First I'd like to start with some lightweight news. I broke up with Jesus, and a huge burden was lifted from my shoulders. How did that happen? Haha, long story, but I blame it on my dad. Towards the end of the National holiday week he managed to talk me into going to this underground Christian community by exploiting my interest in new things.

Well, actually his sales pitch was: "You'll meet some nice girls there." And stupidly, I bought it. I'm beginning to think he knows some nice girls there. But anyway, in the end I did it mostly just because I wanted to make him stop nagging. I mean for god's sake, I'm atheist! So, Sunday morning I went there and told them I wasn't going to show up anymore. *Sigh* why do I always have to pick up the pieces after my dad? Let this be the last time I ever listen to his stupid ideas. Even my mum's were BY FAR SUPERIOR. Or is this just me being oedipal? Go figure.

A lot of people have asked me about how the Chinese girls are (I JUST WONDER WHY??). Well, ok I admit, I've avoided this topic long enough. Lol, even the Chinese people here have asked what I feel about them. Now obviously I've only spent most of my time here in Tsinghua, the geek school, where chances of getting a good-looking girl are pretty slim (it's still possible, though, but 2/3 of the students are male). On the other hand, getting a smart girl is a surefire thing: I feel like I'm the midget in the land of the giant minds here... please rescue me!

Yeah, anyway. They say there are lots of beauties in Beida, or Beijing University. It's the Arts (for my Finnish friends: humanismi, not taide) uni next door, so you know, less geeks and generally more women. Apparently these are the top two unis in China and they are always competing with each other just like Oxford and Cambridge. Have I gone offtopic? Oh I think I have. Yeah, girls. Obviously, there wasn't and won't be enough time for me to get a whole picture but I can give a quick overview on three different people I've encountered here. Let's call them Melissa, Cindy and Gertrude*.

Mel is a 19 years old English major. Her dad wants to go to America. Her English is very good, but that shouldn't be a surprise given her major. At first I thought she's shy, but she's actually quite confident with her English and isn't afraid to approach foreign people for an interview, for example. A nice, civilized and harmless girl, though I think she's been trying to avoid me lately lol :)

Cindy is 20 and from Changsha, apparently the creative center of the Chinese TV industry (Wikipedia). She studies journalism, but her English skill isn't that good. That's why she wants me to speak English with her... you know, for some oral practice. Has some sense of fashion, for a Chinese. (Ranting and offtopic again, but usually even if a girl dresses smartly otherwise, you can see them wearing sneakers... like wtf?? The Koreans are far more fashionable than the Chinese here). Well, don't know more about her yet so that's all.

Gertrude should be 21 I think... She's doing the senior year in the same department as me (SEM, the School of Economics and Management), majoring in accounting. Really book-smart, however a lot difference in sense of humour. Speaks ok English, has even been to Canada for an exchange period. We have many courses in common and work in the same case group in one of them, so of the Chinese students I've probably talked most with her. With her new haircut, she reminds me of the character "Edna Mode" in The Incredibles :D :D

By the way, I only wrote this much to spark some discussion into my blog, as I'm bored to see 0 comments one after another. For a post this long, there must be something for everyone. So please, comment!

*) And then of course there's Helen, who kindly named these people so I wouldn't have to invent the names myself. Thank you!

New stuff and Old stuff

Sorry for my absence - the uni is killing me :) Suddenly it seems that every course is out there to get you. At least that's what the rush of deliverable assignments felt like.

Anyway, I've beginning to love the Tsinghua TV station. Ok, some situation recap needed. Previously on THTV: So, I learned there were tons of clubs and other activities looking for members in the beginning of the semester. One time I went to have a lunch when I spotted a very nice looking camera standing on a tripod. At first I thought it was a movie club or something, but turns out it's a student-run TV-station inside the campus. I registered immediately.

I believe that was the best decision I made here this far. I went on their welcome event for the "new" people and god there were just so many girls :). The "older" people are also really nice. I talked them about my past so they let me take some responsibility straight away without any practice. That's why I was able to go shoot the 2nd world university shooting championships. Now I'm working on shooting the campus-wide singing competition (the format taken from Idols I guess). I don't have to work alone since they partner up a reporter with a camera operator, which is so cool.

The TV station is a place I can go when I need to clear my mind from all the school shaite. Still, I don't think I'll be too buried with schoolwork. After all, it's just an attitude thing.

Oh did I mention my dad was here? Yeah, he came over here on the excuse of attending a conference. Was here last weekend. It was nice, toured me around the campus - the places he grew up around. More photos about that coming later.

Tsinghua University shooting, Finns competing for score

TSINGHUA-The campus held its breath today as Tsinghua University Shooting 2008 began.

One street in the residential area has been closed and an unusually high campus security activity has been reported patrolling the area. However, athlete lodging arrangements have not interfered with everyday campus life much.

The Second World University Shooting Championship is being held in Beijing, China, with Tsinghua University as the main host for the athletes of the games.

The latest number of attending countries amount up to 30, among them Finland, which has lately caught extensive media attention for using illegal practices in school shooting.

However, after a careful study of evidence, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and International University Sports Federation (FISU) decided to drop all charges against the Finnish national university shooting team.

The championships will take place in Beijing from 8th to to 11th October. We will monitor the situation live as the event unfolds.

Update 1 @ 17:53 GMT+2: Got in :D. Will go to the Olympic shooting hall (where the real competitions were held) in Beijing on Friday. I'll be shooting, too. Just not with a gun, but a camera! Yay.

> Official website

Pleasant surprises

Roughly one month ago I bought a nice Tsinghua bag from the souvenir store here, and have been using it since. A week ago one of the buttons fell off and I thought the process of reclaiming it would end miserably, but little did I know back then.

I went to the shop to complain about the issue yesterday, and to my surprise, not only did they admit the problem was fairly common, but also fixed it right there, in a matter of minutes. Without charge. Of course, I might've just been lucky, but hey: you don't get lucky unless you try!

Traveling back

The day of the departure was marked by a constant rain. Indeed, the whole train ride from Nanjing to the capital city of Beijing was chased by the rain. It's been a while since the last time I went on an overnight train ride. That was in Finland I think.

I got tickets to a "hardback" bed which means a cubicle of 2x3 beds (three levels on both sides). That's the usual ticket type we bought back in the day, when living in China :) I slept on the lowest one. It was comfortable enough to be able to fall asleep, although I kept waking up once in a few hours. Anyway, back and still alive :)

P.S. the photos are starting to flow into Flickr... I'll keep a constant pace of about 8-10 pictures / day so that if you check back every now and then, there should be some new ones (instead of lashing them all at once).

More China phenomena

Here's an interesting article on how the city of Beijing plans to continue the improvement of air quality even after the Olympics: http://english.sina.com/china/p/2008/0928/189001.html.

It's clearly a good sign of sustainability from the government, that everything wasn't just for the show. However, I'll definitely want to see the public reaction, some of what is already expressed in the article. Ultimately their actions will determine if the project is successful or not.

My dad says one reason why democracy is still far from actually happening here is because of the way the Chinese people are wired. There's no single excuse, it's just the way things are done. People look for strong leadership and guidance or they will be as lost as the sheep without their sheperds.

However, there's still hope. The youth here are much more individual and liberal than the old people - to a point even I am surprised - so perhaps slowly, as the generation change takes place, the new way of thinking will be injected into the system.

Inner change will take time. We may not see it in five, ten or even twenty years, despite rapid development on the outside. But perhaps in fifty years, the promises of One World, One Dream will finally come true.

Yes, I finally watched the Olympics opening ceremony, which I missed on the 8th August due to some business I had to take care of. I have to say, though, that I felt so proud after seeing the ceremony. It was an NBC rip with American hosts, but even they admired the show.

By the way, I think I won't be uploading any photos from my National Holiday travels until I get back to Beijing (that's Oct. 5th). I just can't be bothered to set up Internet connection to my laptop.