The Nest in Beijing

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Yep, that’s the Nest. This is where the (Beijing) Olympics 2008 is supposed to be held  but until now it’s still under construction. I wonder if they could finish it before then. Unfortunately, no tourists are allowed to enter the vicinity yet so we can’t take a peep inside the building but from the outside, it looks like the building is completely done; I guess it’s just the surrounding area they have to beautify—put some green grass and some trees perhaps.

As promised, some pictures from our trip in Beijing last weekend are finally posted but unfortunately, I didn’t post them here. They’re in my other blog. If you want to see the pictures, you may click here.

A Smoggy Day in Beijing

We’ve been in Beijing last weekend and here are a few photos taken there.

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The Forbidden City

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The White Pagoda

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The Nest

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The Bell Tower

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A Park

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A View from The Bell Tower

I cannot remember how many times I’ve been in Beijing but this is by far the worst weather condition I’ve seen there. The sun was shining brightly and the temperature was relatively warm for Spring but boy, it was so smoggy! As you can see in the pictures, the air is much polluted. Everything which is 10 meters away is hazy.

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This picture is taken from a short distance. ;-)

I'm Back

I am back from Beijing. The train ride was not that bad. I was still able to sleep. The only uncool thing was that we were not in one cabin. Daniel and Anne had to stay in another cabin with four other strangers and Marcus and I stayed in the cabin next to theirs (to go and to go back). That took away the fun part from going to Beijing by train with your buddies. Nobody in Anne and Daniel’s cabin wanted to exchange tickets with us and it’s the same with the strangers in our cabin (bunch of party poopers). They didn’t want four foreigners to stay in one cabin and have fun. The rest of the trip was okay and I will definitely post some pictures later.

In the meantime, I will bore you with some things like the comment given to me in one of my posts about Getting Married to a Filipina. You may go check it out and leave your thoughts. There’s also a very interesting comment in my post, Sol Latino in Changchun which you might want to read and react as well.

I am thrilled that my blog is being read by some people who are actually interested what I write and in what I say about their situation. Cool. :)

Gone for a Few Days

We’re going to Beijing tonight and this means massive dosages of Starbucks coffee over the weekend. And though we are not planning to party there like what the people do in San Diego Friday nights or in Vegas every night, we will definitely visit the HardRock Café and the Sanlitun Bar Street just to have a look of these places.

If I were to choose which city I like best in China, I would choose Beijing. Okay, I’ve only seen Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Nanjing, Dalian, Harbiin, and other small cities on the Northeastern part of China but I have made up my mind. Beijing is the best city in China but I wouldn’t want to be there during the Olympics. Why? For the very simple fact that it would be very crowded. It would be more difficult to get taxis. It would be impossible to take good photos of places since there will be tourist in every corner and in every direction. Hotels, restaurants, tours, theatres and etc would be much much more expensive.

*Shrug. What am I talking about? We wont be here by then anyway.

We’re Leaving on a C-Train

We’re leaving for Beijing later in the evening but not without having dinner in our favourite restaurant Sol Latino. Tonight, I’ll get the chance to take photos of the place and perhaps I can thoroughly write about it next time.

Becuase we are unlucky to get hard sleeper tickets instead of soft sleeper tickets, I’ll bring my own sheets so we have something to use in the train. That’s additional weight in my baggage but I would like it more to use our own sheets than what is available in the train. Don’t ask me why.

If Marcus won’t bring his laptop then I will bring mine even if it is 10 times heavier than his laptop. I won’t mind the weight. Better to carry a heavy load to go to Beijing and back than not being able to visit my blogs for days.

By tomorrow, we will be there.

It should be nice.

Hard Sleeper

I went to the train ticket office yesterday to buy some tickets for our upcoming Beijing trip. I was meant to buy four roundtrip soft sleeper train tickets. The idea was Marcus, Daniel, Anne and I will be travelling together in one cabin. That would be fun.

Unfortunately, soft sleeper tickets are sold out so I don’t have any choice but to take the best from what was left and that would be top bunk hard sleeper tickets. I told the awful news to my travelling companions but they said that though they are not eager to sleep on 3-storey bunk beds in an open cabin with strangers, they think they can do it. So we’ll proceed with our tickets. Rescheduling or upgrading to plane tickets is not an option.

The European men assured us that it would be ok and that they are ok with it but I can bet my sexy ass that they will frown and complain more than Anne and I. When I learned that there are no more soft sleeper tickets available, I called them first to confirm if they want to go with hard sleeper tickets because I know that they won’t be comfortable sleeping in the same room with strangers. (I would like to add a lot of adjectives before the word stranger but I might be offending the most populous race so I won’t)

Well, good luck to us. When I am out of this country, I’ll probably say more but right now, I’ll stay quiet.

In a Few Days and a Few Days Ago

In a few days, I might do some MIA act.

It is not like I am going on a big trip anywhere but I will stay quiet in a while. I will busy myself with some other things than blogging like my German Lesson and our bi-monthly visit to Beijing. Yep, we are going to Beijing again but this time, we are going with our hooked up but are now certified couple friends and activity buddies, Daniel and Anne.

Since Marcus, Daniel, and Anne have real jobs and are busy, the task to arrange the trip was awarded to me (thank you). We’ll probably spend three days there which is good. It should be enough time to visit Starbucks and the Foreign Languages Bookstore. Going to the great wall doesn’t appeal to me anymore since I’ve been there twice. Anne is excited to see the wall because it’s her first time to go to Beijing. I am not going there again so maybe we’ll split up for one day so they can go to the wall and Marcus and I can do something like shopping. Haha.

Marcus is having his birthday in a few months and starting today, I am trying to get some ideas about what special things I could do for him on his day. Also, I am already thinking what gift I could give him. Anne said it’s way too early. I say hey, I wasn’t me who gave a surprised congratulation party for my partner who didn’t get the promotion yet.

It’s funny how it was.

A few days ago, Anne organized a surprised party for Daniel. The party is supposed to express our heart-warming congratulations for Daniel’s promotion but then last Saturday, we were the ones surprised by Daniel when he said that he didn’t sign any contract yet and though his boss already gave him the thumb up, they are still negotiating on a few things and if these things weren’t settled for both parties, Daniel might as well forget about the promotion. Haha. Anyway, we still had a blast last Saturday. A few close friends of Anne and I came and we partied and used the karaoke I got from my parents in law. It was fun.

Our Short Trip to Beijing

I am back from our shopping trip to Beijing and I have some pictures to share but before that I would like to update some thing.

I still have not fixed my problem with Smorty. I will wait until the next payday, If I wont be paid by them I will email them again. For now I will stop using writing for Smorty until all things get cleared up.

On to the pictures.

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I’ll start with my most artistic shot for this entire trip.

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a little bit glimpse to Chinese Fashion

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and to Chinese hair and Make Up

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In the train with my crazy traveling companions. That’s Marcus and two of his colleagues.

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Guys doing the shopping at the Silk Market

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Dinner at our Favorite Resto –the Steak Factory

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This is what I got for diner. Yum Yum Yum!

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A visit to the only tourist place we have not seen in Beijing. The Egg.