Best Hot Pot Service

Never thought I will found the best service restaurant I'll ever have is in China.. Well, just yesterday I went to have Hot Pot at one of the popular restaurants in Beijing. Just heard that the waiting hours to get the seat is 1-2 hours. But, the cool is we can get manicure while waiting, cheers girl!!.. :)

The name of the place is HaiDiLaoHuoGuo （海底捞火锅）. While waiting, you can enjoy snack, menicure, shoe polishing, or just playing poker with their playing cards. Cool, huh!? That's just the beginning, since we have broken-chinese, the waiter was so patient to read the food menu to us, they're also cook the hot pot, help us with the hot pot. One time, I just took some vegetable, and get hard to put it in my bowl, since the bowl was small and the vegetable was bigger, and the waiter, from nowhere I can see, help me right away.

They even, shaped the meat ball in front of us. Ordering noodles, they make it in front of your table. They also have the kids playing room. One time, I had my iphone on my table, the waiter put my iphone inside plastic bag, to have it sealed and safe from the food. I think the service is one waiter / table, that's why it was so quick and satisfying service.

I don't get the chances to see the toilet, but my friend told me, it was the first time, someone open the toilet door for her, and even open the water tab and give her the tissue after wash hand, inside the TOILET. Best service, or what!?

The snack is also good, I love the corn one. :) 

How about the food, so far I enjoyed it, some prefer another place, some said it was the best. And it's not that expensive. ;)

第一次在北京看电影

爱丽丝梦游仙境

For the first time, watched movie in Beijing. I watched Alice in Wonderland in Jinyi International Cinemas, ZhongGuanCun. It's quite good, since there's no dubbing voice as I'm afraid it will be, but quite expensive. I paid 60 元, around 80.000 IDR, it's price for 3D movie in Weekend. Well, I also watched 3D in weekend, but the price already half, since we use the student card. The original price is 120 元.

And the one thing I'm not usually to do is, we need to pay deposit of 100 RMB, for the 3D glasses. They will return the deposit, as soon as you return the glasses. Well, the glasses is quite good, not just ordinary plastic glasses like in Jakarta.

I heard, China just allow 20 Western Movies per year. Maybe that's why China's Movies Industry is so alive and quite good. I saw many shooting was taken placed everywhere I went.

About the movie : Quite good, but if you don't like fantasy movies, I won't recommend. All of us, who watched the movie agree that we're not satisfied with the ending, we loved to see Alice in the end, met the guy who really looked like Mad Heater. It would be nice. :)

Caution Drop Down

Caution Drop Down

Be careful when people start to jump off the trees.. 

Beijing in Sephia Mode

The wind got bigger, and the weather got stranger. I lived all my life in tropical climate country, never felt or experience living in the 4 seasons country. And now, as I'm lost in Beijing, I experienced what the winter like ( the dry skin, the cold snow, the minus temperature ) as I'm waiting for the spring to come. It felt spring nearly come, still waiting the flowers to blossom beautifully.

BLCU CC, March 14th 2010

BLCU CC, March 20th 2010

The snow on Sunday, in the middle of March, is it normal? Woke up on Saturday, my friend, S told me to look out the window, it was sephia day. She also, the one who took the picture above. First, it was kinda romantic, but when you realize what happened, it's not that romantic. The sephia not because of the sun or anything, but it was because of the sand storm.. hahaha..

I think spring is really near, I can feel the weather got warmer and the wind got bigger.. :)

WangFuJing

The popular WangFuJing who provide every kind of thing in stick, from Scorpio to sweet strawberry. You have to tried it while in China.. A little Fear Factor kind of food..

Popular Beggar in China

Found the link from my friend's pages. He was popular beggar in China, because he is looked so handsome, some said he looked like Takeshi Kaneshiro. He lived in the street, ate from the leftover, and dress with many women's dress he found on the trash.

Why I use the past tense sentence? Because now he already home with his family. Since he is very popular with netizen, his family know where he is. He had family in Jianxi, and have two children. He is mentally ill, and he didn't beg.

On the article, "Brother Sharp" became very stress since many people offered to help him, but these frightened him and he cried without speaking..

To read the article more :

http://www.chinasmack.com/pictures/chinese-beggar-becomes-famous-online/

http://www.chinasmack.com/stories/brother-sharp-family-reunion-netizen-photoshops/

Many netizen photoshop "Brother Sharp" photo made it looked like he was in Fashion Magazine or a male model. It looked good though..

Near my place, there is two beggar I see living in the street. Just today, I give one of them money, since he lived in the street but he also take care two dogs, he even give the dog blankets, so cutee..

After 1.5 weeks.

Now I know around my neighbourhood, my class,

my teachers, new friends and experiences,

know the basic surviving kit in China; 

buying something, order something,

adapt to the cold and windy weather,

deal with homework,

done buying basic needs,

have my favourite yoghurt,

the location of nearby ATM,
take bus and subway,

and start having fun & learning Chinese in China..

加油！

Bird Nest

2010 Fact : I'm in Beijing, home of Olympic 2008, and my brother in London, home of Olympic 2012.

I have been in Bird Nest twice, first time I went with my friends, and the second time with my Agency. The good things I went in day and night, saw the different views.

The stadium was filled with snow, the worker were working to clean up the mess, there was one Snow Plow inside. The Aquatic Centre is not really pretty in day, but in night with the light, it looked really interesting. 

Chinglish

Refer to wikipedia, Chinglish is :

Chinglish (simplified Chinese: 中式英语; traditional Chinese: 中式英語; pinyin: Zhōngshì Yīngyǔ) is a portmanteauof the words Chinese and English and refers to spoken or written English which is influenced by Chinese^[1]. There are an estimated 300 to 500 million users and/or learners of English in the People's Republic of China^[2]. The term "Chinglish" is mostly used in popular contexts and may have pejorative or derogatory connotations^[3]. Other terms for the variety of English used in China include "Chinese English," "China English," and "Sinicized English."^[4].

I know Chinese people not very fluently in English, but sometime it can be really funny, like many sign with wrong translation. I thought myself, I want to take picture every sign with bad translation, not yet found it, but I had my very first Chinglish.

I bought body lotion, since the dry skin in winter. I just took it randomly, the cheaper one and read the letter BODY LOTION. The first time I try the body lotion, it's so sticky, so I washed it with water and it made little bubble. I was so curious about it.

So I open my iphone dictionary,

沐浴露 : Shower Gel

润肤露 : Body Lotion

I was successfully buy shower gel instead of Body Lotion. - -

Registration and Blablabla..

February 28th, 

Wake up, went to Bank of China. I thought we already create the account through the agency, the card can be use directly. But nope, we need to activate the account in BOC there. My friend have the money for school and accommodation there, he need to transfer it from USD to RMB. You have to put it USD in your BOC account, not RMB, the regulation stated it, but you could transfer RMB through Money Changer.

It said that my debit card, BCA, can used here, I'm gonna use it BCA Debit Card instead of my BOC, because more convenient for my parents to send the money, they just put it in my bank account in Jakarta, like they usually did when I was in college, and BCA can be found everywhere in Jakarta, than trusted money changer or BOC branch.

After BOC, lunch in Korean restaurant, then back to BLCU, had registration process. It was easy, just showing the JW 202 in the first floor, pay in the 2nd floor, then back to 1st floor to have the student card. :) Well, I have agency who process it, and it's not have long queue like I was imagined from reading many blog. I''m officially BLCU students.. My friend failed to register, since he had long term Admission Notice and he wanted to register the short term instead. Until today, he not yet finished the registration process.

On the evening, we shopped in local supermarket, buying snack, instant noodle, bathroom supplies, long john, laundry bag, etc. The funny story is we went dinner, just me and my friend, with BROKEN chinese language we order the chinese food. My friend order beer 啤酒，but they serve an alcohol drink with 59% alcohol. :) I think the server just got 酒. Beijing start snowing, :( it supposed to get warmer, but they're gone colder.

March 1st

Have Placement test today, feel so nervous, can't study well enough. Have placement test with bunch of korean, japanese, and the rest of class, just me, Indonesian, Italy, Mexico, and USA.

The teacher speak the chinese clearly, I can understand her speech, but chinese people, nope their word just gone to my brain without my brain processed them. I can do the written test, it's much easy, but the writting essay, reading and conversation, I failed throughly. She said she will gonna place me in B class. Wow.. From the written test, she said I qualified placed in B+class, with these broken chinese? I don't think so.

She directly process the test and said the result, but my friends not have the exact process with their placement test. One have the teacher have the conversation test in the middle of written test, other have the same things like mine, but the teacher not stated the result to her. I think I've got the nice one, since the Japanese who said 听不懂 more n more, are placed in B class.

Have big lunch in restaurant inside campus, no problem like yesterday, it's easy and delicious too. :)

After lunch, we went to register the internet, the places was closed for lunch, and I need to go the bathroom, back to CC, my room key can't be used, well, I didn't pay yet, they said they give us 3 days, the dateline was supposed to be tomorrow. We want to pay in Sunday, but they said they accepted the payment in Monday. We went to the receptionist, have the key activated and pay the entire accommodation for one semester. 

Went back to the internet, have queued for several time in front of the place with bloody wind blowing, give the body much freeze. Everybody is desperate to have the internet connection, pay 140RMB/month. With many people blocking and squeezing. :)

Internet on, then we went to station, to create the transportation card. Had dinner in Korean BBQ restaurant, with broken chinese language, once more, we didn't get what we want. I need to improve my chinese language more. 

The 6 month study in Jakarta, with 4 hours a week, just pinyin, not so much helping. Lucky, I learn the hanzi 汉字 myself and got the good score in written result. The result of placement day will be out in tuesday afternoon (today). Update soon.

For the internet access, I recommend you to use VPN, there are many selection in internet. If you want to know what I'm using, please message me or leave your email in the comment. :) I'm luck to have my friend who already studied in Shanghai, she know what program we have to used.

I was so disappointed not brave enough to go to China from Sept, known one friend who already study from Sept from the beginning, he already speak fluently now. I could be him, well enjoy the moment now.

Here I am in Beijing

Already arrived safely, I'm alive n breathing in Beijing.

Saturday, Feb 27th 

Jakarta – Shenzhen – Xiamen- Beijing

Around 01.00 am, take off from Jakarta to Xiamen.

Not long time after takeoff, the cabin crews start to serve early-morning/supper/breakfast; hash brown, hamburger beef meat, and supposed to be 2 slices pancakes, served with croissant and fruits.

Fell asleep, wake up for several minutes, saw the sun rise on the right window ( I sat in left aisle, near the right window, 26A).

In the morning, without conscious fully, the captain announced that the airplane will land not in the Xiamen, but in the Shenzhen, because of the foggy weather in Xiamen. I thought waiting will be 1 hour, instead we wait so long, until a group of gentleman on the back row start to argue because of the long waiting.

On the 11.00am, the time we SHOULD be arrived in Beijing, we just took off and arrived in Xiamen, 50 minutes later, then directly went immigration procedure, then to Beijing with the same aircraft and the same crew.

And again, we waited for several time before can take off. Long waiting. We arrived in Beijing, through everything and took bus in 18.00 pm. Phew, we’re late for 6 hours. Maybe that’s why Soekarno Hatta Airport is no.2 most punctual airport in the world, since we never have that climate problem. The most problem is rainy season, where the landing land becomes slippery.

Because of my agent is the official representative of BLCC (Beijing Language Culture College), with most of the participant is BLCC students, just 2, me and another boy who going to BLCU, we directly went to BLCC from airport. Have dinner there, then straight to BLCU.

I’m staying in the Conference Centre , it has been booked by our agent, have 2 single room on the same floor. Meeting another new student who already in the hotel, while chat and plan for tomorrow’s plan. Another Indonesian students greet us, they invite us to eat street-snack, like BBQ or satay, cheap but delicious. They help us and give many tips to us.

Never been in Beijing, and arrived in Beijing with 0 degree Celcius, and just worn one shirt, sweater, jacket, skinny jeans, without long john, it’s so freaking freezing.

__________

Went to both BLCU and BLCC, well I feel so lucky to choose BLCU, I can tell you it's so much BIGGER place, have more foreigners, that I'm expected to. In BLCC when I visit for dinner, many Indonesian there, well they said the campus only have foreigner who have Chinese heritage. 

I'm going to tell you more about CC and Dorm #17 later, since I'm not yet visit my friend who stay there. But it's true, CC is closer to the class room, and Dorm #17 is more far.