Beijing-ed || A Daily Photo Blog

Sorry to mama, coz I haven’t been talking to her much.

Sorry to sister, coz I forgot her birthday.

What on earth am I doing? 

When you climb too fast, you fall hard.

 When you try too hard, you’ll find yourself heading away from your intentions.

I think a lot of times, it’s just about being who you are. I am who I am, regardless of how hard I try to portray a certain image. Eventually, I’ll be found out, and if so… what for?

What I need now, is to be confident and comfortable with myself. There will not be contempt nor shame, only guts and passion and compassion.

And I wish I shall never falter like that again. To be specific, I shall not. 

On Saturday 23 Sep, the lot of us attending dharma class made a trip to 西山 to view the Buddha tooth relic. 

Waiting for our van transports to arrive… L-R  Jinyao and Weilie

西山八大处, located in the western sub-urbs of Beijing, is named after 8 temples built on these mountains. 

Kena Sai… literally. 

Everyone assembling in front of the ticketing entrance.

觉舫师父leading the way to 灵光寺. Pretty crowded coz it’s a Saturday. 

觉舫师父explaining certain buddhist concepts to us while we queue to view the buddha tooth relic. 

We’re almost there! L-R: Ronghui, Meiying, Jinyao, Junyuan, Weilie and Me! 

After viewing the buddha tooth, we made a trip round certain spots in 灵光寺. This is where they incribed the heart sutra on the wall. 

That’s the queue I went through just a few moments ago, they were particularly stringent about what you could bring in, which explains the metal detector. By the way… we were in the queue for approx 1.5 - 2 hours. 

The buddha tooth relic pagoda in its full glory. 

Finally back in the van and making our way to Tsinghua Tech Park 天厨妙香 for our long awaited vegetarian lunch. 

Currently, I’ve got myself in the Acapella group 新声，as well as in the school chorus (which is tied to the module - Basic Chorus Singing), and all these while my chipmunk meditates.

I’m a happy man.

Or rather… I should think hard on that question. Junior (and to be China-bound fellow scholar) WeiBiao asked me "are you enjoying yourself there?" To which I answered "Yeah, why not? What would prevent me from doing so?"

Perhaps… I should think harder before answering. I’ve yet to arrive at an answer since. 

Anyway… the newest change of plans!

专业必修：现代汉语 － 3 学分
专业必修：古代汉语 － 4 学分
校必修：文科计算机 － 3 学分
限选：古代文学作品鉴赏 － 2 学分
通选：小说的艺术 － 2 学分
公选：合唱（初级）－ 1 学分

And this is the final confirmed combination. This also implies that I have to take close to 20 (or more that that should my GPA permit) over the next 2.5 years for every sem to assure an easier time for year 4, so that I may write my thesis in peace.

It is a pity to give up maths, but I practically cannot cope after losing touch for so long… it seriously isn’t what I came here for… so there are rationale decisions I have to make. 

my faculty’s logo! (very seldom seen though….)

 If there’s one thing about lectures here in Beida, China, it must be how seats are filled faster than anyone can say anything.

i) Firstly, people chop seats… 1 person chop 10 seats is not unheard of.
ii) Secondly, people are kiasu, so they snap up the front rows in lightning speed
iii) Thirdly, there are all kinds of weird people who appear in a class they’re not registered in, especially my chinese language classes. Aunties, uncles, farmers, seniors supposedly doing masters and PhD, freshman from other faculties… before you know it, a class catered for 50 has >100 people listening in.
iv) Well, to top it off, people have weird ways to emerge through the competition. Chairs are a very useful commodity in lecture classrooms (where seats are fixed). So, we have chairs lining the aisle.

And that was how yours truly (who overslept today) managed to arrive in class late, and sit on the floor in front of the door for class today. And clause (iv) was how my Chinese friend 梁勇 chivarously rescued me… Despite knowing him for only 2 days, he went all the way to the end of the block and got me a chair.

I am a lucky guy.

In an even more rapid change of plans:

专业必修：现代汉语 － 3 学分
专业必修：古代汉语 － 4 学分
校必修：文科计算机 － 3 学分
限选：古代文学作品鉴赏 － 2 学分
限选：文科高等数学 － 4 学分
通选：无 － 0 学分
公选：合唱（初级）－ 1 学分

In a rapid change of plans:

专业必修：现代汉语 － 3 学分
专业必修：古代汉语 － 4 学分
校必修：文科计算机 － 3 学分
限选：古代文学作品鉴赏 － 2 学分
限选：当代经典作品赏析 － 2 学分
通选：教育社会学 － 2 学分
公选：合唱（初级）－ 1 学分

The corridor when we moved some furniture out to the corridor to lay the lenoleum flooring.

专业必修：现代汉语 － 3 学分
专业必修：古代汉语 － 4 学分
校必修：文科计算机 － 3 学分
限选：古代文学作品鉴赏 － 2 学分
限选：鲁迅《故事新编》研究 － 2 学分
限选：台湾文学 － 2 学分
通选：（待确定）－ 学分

Given that I didn’t max out the 20 points capacity… and that I have to graduate with 140 points in 4 years (with last year being a lot on the thesis…) I think I’m taking it a bit too easy this sem. But then again, I need to build a strong foundation.

Wish me luck! 

Bunking%20in.jpg

The above photo shows Junyuan’s room… There’s limited space, so we gotta share, but in any case, I’m really grateful to him coz he put a roof above my head at zero cost. Living in Tsinghua was a pretty cool experience. The campus is much larger than Beida’s, and I made many different adventures across the campus on my bicycle (now made better by a series of repairs). On top of that, they have much better accomodations, coz international students live in Air-conditioned rooms within dorm buildings that looks like the newest condo.

My%20own%20dorm.jpg 

Nevertheless, it feels good to finally get your own room! Whee…. so this is where I’ll most probably live for the next 4 years provided that I don’t change my accomodation. It’s not a bad room really. It’s actually at the end of the corridor, so people don’t keep walking by my room… I’m also right smack beside the balcony (though it’s too cramped and dusty to be used for anything). The only complaint is how voices can be easily heard from downstairs, coz we’re only on the 2nd storey. In any case, I am happy, and I think that’s all that matters for now. =)

Armchair.jpg 

We wanted to get really comfortable in this room, so we got ourselves an armchair from Ikea for relaxing and reading purposes. It’s really very comfortable. By the way, hot water shower is provided from 6am until 12mn, so it’s really convenient (unless you choose to hang out late), and they have security in the blocks too, so things are relatively safe.  The only thing is water, which you have to get a drinking fountain for.

I think that basically wraps up my dorm for now. =)