We’ve now secured an apartment–well, secured, at least in some sense. The rent is already high and we’ve sort-of been warned that the landlady may increase it. The place is quite nice, however, and I can’t wait to have my own collection of points in the 3-d coordinate plane. Everyone here has been wonderful, and at least Sean’s grandmother will be sad that we won’t be around as much, but I will be happier once I have my own desk, tea paraphernalia, and place to put my stinky running clothes. We will hopefully be moving on Sunday.

I registered for the GMAT and have only a few weeks to study. I am also working on getting the recommendation letter templates out. Chinese schools are *so* not on a schedule–except, apparently, as regards receiving my completed application. One has posted the 2010 app; the other, not so much. As National Holiday draws to a close, however, I’m hoping they’ll be more responsive.

I have also lately learned that the picture on the outside of the package does not necessarily reflect the contents. I bought a package of tasty dried fruits (labeled plums…maybe). Although I am in no way dissatisfied with the contents, I was mildly surprised by them.  These photos are the outside and the inside. I am likely to pursue a new package of these, as I’ve eaten almost all of them.

Package

Contents. Tasty, but not as advertised.

The weather has been intermittently astonishingly beautiful, but it is getting cold. I anticipate that we will need to use a heater soon. I understand that it doesn’t get as cold here as, say, Boston, but that it will approach freezing. I am also becoming impatient to explore more, especially on my own, and am finding my lack of language skills quite limiting. This is not surprising, and I believe that as the National Holiday finishes up–and I have my own apartment — I can get the language-learning show on the road. *Can’t wait to unpack.*

I signed up for my first race in Beijing, or outside it–only a 10k, but since registration for the Beijing Half-Marathon is closed, I’ll take what I can get. I also posted on the Beijinger website, asking for gym recommendations and info on running clubs. I’m not optimistic anyone will have anything useful to say, but let’s see what fish this net ensnares.

I’d like to start out by stating that I think I’m spending way too much time with my family. Counting the time after we left our apartments in LA, we’ve been living with some form of family for over two months. I think it’s starting to get to me. It just sort of feels as if my time is not my own. My grandmother likes having meals with us, and they prepare them, and they do ask if we want to eat with them, but I just don’t have the heart to say no. My only reasonable excuse is that we eat dinner much later than they, so for the moment, we’re only obligated for lunch.

The point though, is that it seems like it’s just one holiday with all the family after another. More on the Mid-Autumn Festival by the way, later; I promise. And there’s so many of them. And Chinese people are so loud, especially when they all get together.

B. showed up that day as well. The city was for all intents and purposes closed and we thought it might be fun for him to come over. The majority of the festivities involved sitting in front of the TV and watching the big parade go by, then during lunch, watching the rerun, then that evening at my aunt and uncle’s place (more on them at some point) watching it yet again. All in all, we’ve seen parts of it at least three times, oh and I just remember that it was playing on the huge eight story tall TV screen in front of Tian An Men Square as we passed it on the bus. So make that four times.

My grandmother really liked B. As she put it, she loves anybody who loves her country. She is actually quite fiercely patriotic, though evidently not as patriotic as my uncle (this being my father’s older brother, I’m realizing that without names my relationships with people is going to be vague, but, well, I’m not sure there’s a way around it) since he is patriotic and loves the entire of history of China, even before the communists took over, and apparently my grandmother only loves it since then. Either way. She actually cried during the TV broadcast, when they tore at your heartstrings with recorded broadcasts of Chairman Mao declaring that “Our country is standing up now,” no sarcasm intended.

The entire broadcast was a tribute to perfection. Everyone standing in formation was even the same height. Apparently, they were specifically chosen to be only a few centimeters apart at most. They all marched in sync. to a degree I had never thought possible. They even turned their heads at the same time, in the same way, as the current president rode by in his fancy Red Flag Chinese limousine. Oh and I want to be the guy who gets to throw the flat. So in China, when they raise the flag, it’s not like in the States where someone just makes sure it never touches the ground. Here, someone actually bundles it so that yes, it doesn’t touch the ground, and then, at an appropriate, predetermined point, he lavishly throws it into the air with a grandiose gesture so that it waves majestically as it is raised. Quite a spectacle to behold actually, and yes, I want to be that guy.

The parade can be seen of as being in two parts. The first being a demonstration and procession of China’s military might, showing tanks and missile launchers from anti-air cannons to ICBM launchers. We think they’re empty though, and the tanks weren’t those proper “tanks” per se popularized in the Gulf War, more like those modern, “Urban” type tanks the police like to use, outfitted with fancy guns and cannons and missiles. The point being, they must have not been loaded, for safety reasons one, and two, so they don’t damage the rode. My father even speculated that they may have been made out of cardboard, but I’m not entirely sure of that.

Incidentally I saw a video online comparing the North Korea military demonstration to China’s, with the implication that they’re similar. I’d like to personally say that I at least liked China’s more, because of the second part, which was a demonstration by the students, the workers, and the “masses.”

So every student in the sophomore year basically had to participate. They’d been practicing for months, all summer, and even now with school in session, they’ve been taking sanctioned days of to practice some more. Now they’re coordination is no where near on par with the military’s, which borders on frightening, but it was neat to see so many of them gathered. They formed in what my father called “Legions,” squares of marchers 1000 people strong. And there were tons of them! I can’t imaging the numbers that showed up for this affair! And they all danced, and chanted, and held up signs giving praise to this or that, I’m not entirely sure or don’t entirely remember, but that’s not really the point, I just liked seeing them all.

Then there were floats, one for each of the different uh, regions, that China controls. Lavish, tacky looking things. Quite gaudy and frightening in their own way. They’re actually still on display at Tian An Men Square. We saw them as we were passing on the bus and they were surrounded by a literal sea of people. You can’t imagine the number of people all out and walking about on a Sunday night, looking at all this stuff. They had two eight story tall TV screens, and two more that must have been eight stories wide. Plus all the floats lit up. And 56 ceremonial pillars. And there were lights. And there were water fountains doing dances in the air. And, as said before, people as far as the eye can see.

Quite a spectacle, all in all. I can’t wait until it’s finished though so that things can get back to normal. People still aren’t really working right now, and businesses are closed. This is hampering my personal ability to get a job and secure an apartment, though it’s looking more and more likely that we’ll be taking my mother’s place. But these are all stories for another time. Suffice it to end with that this country of 60 has come quite a long way, has quite a long ways to go still, but I’m loving every moment of being in it. And I also promise that Maria will be back, at some point; we have been, to put it mildly, busy.