The ThinkBoxers!: Average Day

The highlight of the day was dinner with the NTU people. I was rather hoping to try something new, what with having eaten at Yoshinoya during lunch but ended up eating at an establishment run by a Singaporean named Lau Pa Sat that sold Singaporean food. Zero points for creativity and $7 for Bak Chor Mee. Not impressed. I mean, seriously, I did not travel almost the entire latitude of the northern hemisphere just to eat Singaporean food. Sheesh. Having Sze Chuan Ma La stuff may not have been very nice, but it was something new. Leave this " I miss home so much" stuff till later in the trip, when we have actually forgotten what it tastes like.

Anyway, it seems that none of us miss Singapore yet, especially Waisan, who just arrived yesterday. So lets just talk about my average day.

Attached are photos of my breakfast, workplace, and things I see on my way to work. The underground rooms for rent are an interesting cultural artifact. Apparently, when the students here graduate, they migrate to Beijing and other cities to look for jobs. Since they have almost no income, they are forced to rent beds in these underground rooms for 200 RMB per month until they are employed. Pretty tough lives, and hard to imagine from where we come from.

Parking here is also solved in very creative ways. Like the rest of the transport system here, there are no rules present to the casual observer. At first sight, you may see a car parked on a curb, but upon closer inspection, what you will see is that these are designated parking areas. The buildings were built long before anyone thought that there would be many cars in Beijing and no car parks were built, now, creative solutions have been found. Not very good for the cars but definitely a brilliant solution, given the overall costs.

Anyway, I also included pictures of my workspace and my breakfast, just to give you a better picture of my life here. A picture of us buying fruit is also included, the girl on the left is my roommate and both of them are really good at picking fruits. The rest of us usually tag along to carry the fruits back.

Guess that's all I can write about today, tomorrow we set Waisan up for Beijing, lets see if anything interesting comes up

Underground rooms for rent