visited Beida and Qinghua today. somehow after hearing how they are two of the most famous unis in China, i had rather high expectations of the campuses so actually i was pretty 'shocked' by what they turned out to be like, esp. Beida. i mean for example i didn't really expect to find a dimly lit bookstore with makeshift plastic fans in the middle of campus... there are some really nice bits, but also some really run down bits. somehow after a few 'surprises' the past few days... i didn't really know what to expect of each new place. some things are better than expected, while others astound me. for one, i didn't expect toilets to be still as 'open' as 10 yrs ago... yes, i'm still very mei yong, but i really felt uncomfortable when i stepped into the toilet in a bargain fashion building and saw ppl doing whatever they needed to do in cubicles with no doors.... of course, nobody cares to look at you, or rather, wants to, but it's still so uncomfortable... i mean in the end i had to use that toilet cos when u need to use toilet what else can you do... but it just made me realize how idealistic i was perhaps 4 months back when i thought i could tolerate less than satisfactory sanitary conditions to do com service in rural areas (which i expect would be much worse)
also had a rather amusing pseudo cab driver (cos technically he's unlicenced driver out to zhuan4 wai4 kuai4) who talked about everythign from the '89 Tiananmen incident to reasoning why it's ok and why Beijing ppl should spit on the streets (including live demonstration, twice spitting out of car window onto roads).... dunno. feel so much more drawn to way ppl here live, rather than the tourist attractions i'm "supposed" to and did visit.