A Little Hemlock for the Shelf: Taxi cab instructions

One of our Chinese liaisons faxed this note to my professor last week. I am to print it and keep it with me always. It's my only ticket home if my cabbie happens to not speak any English :)

Trip Timeline

July 5- Fly out of Chicago to Beijing (connecting in Shanghai)

July 6- Arrive in Beijing, check in at International Exchange Center of the Communication University of China

July 8- Tour of CUC campus & community

July 9- English lecture on Beijing history & customs, meeting with Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG)

July 11-13- Beijing city tour

July 15- Olympic venues open, training begins

August 8- Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics

August 24- Closing Ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics

August 25- Fall classes commence at Purdue (without me!)

August 27- Leave Beijing, fly to Chicago (connecting in Shanghai)

September 1- Labor Day in the USA

September 2- My first day back at Purdue

Chinese Fun Facts

China Standard Time is 12 hours ahead of Indianapolis, so 8am Indy = 8pm Beijing

Exchange rate: $1 USD = ¥6.898 RMB

China, like much of the world, runs on the metric system. One liter = .2642 gallons, 1 kilometer = .62137 miles, and 1 kilogram = 2.2046 lbs

More than 4,000 baby boys and girls in China have been named Aoyun, the Chinese word for Olympic Games.

2008 is the year of the rat, according to ancient Chinese tradition

Beijing's average temperature through July & August is 30*C (86*F), average rainfall is 36cm (14") over the two months

Red is considered a "lucky color"

Since the Olympic bid came in 2001, China has spent over $17 billion on improving the air quality and reducing pollution in Beijing (air pollution levels are nearly 5 times over the World Health Organization's standards for safety)

There are over 40,000 written characters in the Chinese alphabet

Beijing is the capital of China, the 2nd largest city, and home to over 16 million people

The Olympic News Service will provide news service in 55 languages during the Games

Over 1.36 million people worldwide applied to volunteer at the Games, just 70,000 were selected

About "A Little Hemlock for the Shelf"

The origin of my blog title goes all the way back to ancient Greek times. In the Athenian day of Socrates, it was a sign of a highly educated and sophisticated man to have a vile of the poisonous hemlock on your shelf. High status citizens were ready to throw down a dose in a time when death was more desirable than surrender or exile. If things got a little crazy, hemlock was the antidote. In fact, Socrates himself drank the poison after he was found guilty of "corrupting the youth" and was sentenced to exile.

In a much less intense kind of way, I hope that my blog can be a little break from the monotony of everyday life. It's a little dose of the other side of the world. Just a fix.

I sincerely hope you find my commentary both educational and entertaining. Please don't hesitate to ask questions or leave comments; I love reader feedback! If there's something you want my perspective on, just let me know. Please keep in mind that this blog is the basis for my study abroad grade, and a very wide range of people are reading!

A Little Hemlock for the Shelf

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Taxi cab instructions

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