Finally, some pictures

Yesterday was not incredibly long, but we did a lot of walking around so I became tired out quickly. When you walk for even ten minutes in Beijing it feels like you've been walking around for an hour or two due to the heat. It's kind of ridiculous.

We started out the day by going to get my bank card. They had it at the Bank of Beijing branch and thanks to LingLing I got it right away. I'm going to have a bit of difficulty getting cash out from now on, but I think what I'll have to do is just go to a Carrefour or something and get cash back. It'll be easier than an ATM and there will be less of a chance of my card getting taken away again.

After we got my card back we went to a bakery down the street from the bank. They had some yummy stuff.

At 2:00 we headed over to the 798 Art District for a film screening. We saw Tan Chi Mui's Year Without a Summer. It was about young boys on a fishing island and was kind of weird but very aesthetically pleasing. After the screening there was a Q&A with the director, most of which I couldn't understand unfortunately. This is the director with Zhang Xianmen, who spoke to our class last week:

We decided to explore the UCCA (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art) after the screening. There were a few very cool exhibits there, but the most fun one was called "V." It was a light installation, with red lasers pointing down to a mirror which subsequently reflected them on the ceiling.

The lights made a V shape in the air, hence the name. It was a very popular exhibit, which is why there are people in almost all of my pictures. The lasers had a really cool effect on my hair.

It was also neat to look into the mirror on the floor.

Myspace status. You can also see my spiffy Sperrys (thanks Mom).

There was another exhibit there by the artist Not Vital. According to the blurb about him on the wall, he typically did mixed-media sculptures and this was the first time he experimented with classical oil paintings. They were far from classical, though.

This is his self-portrait as a North Korean. I'm really sorry if these photos are sideways, I'm not quite sure how to fix that as they show up as the correct orientation on my computer... and I don't actually have access to blogger. idk. Also can someone email me or comment on this post if all of the pictures show up? I haven't made a post with this many pictures yet so I don't know if they'll all work. I hope they do.

We ate dinner and walked around the 798 some more. This was probably my favorite installation there.

Now, for my frustrations. Most of the people in this group are either Chinese nationals or expats who have been living in Beijing for a while. Which means nobody wants to do touristy stuff with me. Everyone has already seen Dead Mao and Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Most of the students are content to sit in their air conditioned dorms and play cards or watch movies. This kind of sucks for me. I'm going to see if I can maybe get one of the foreigners who lives here to show me around a bit, because I think they'll possibly be a bit more sympathetic to the fact that this is probably the only time I'll be in China for a while.

I'm really loving what I have seen of Beijing. It's a terribly interesting and beautiful city if you get to the right parts. I only wish I spoke more Chinese and that the other students in my group were as interested in exploring the city as I was. We'll see what happens from now on... I hope things take a turn for the better now.