mardi,
the tuesday is a long working day , begining at 8h30am finishing at 8H30pm... but this tuesday was special to the chinese, it's called the Mid autumn day, and it's toay that you receive and the famous Moon Cake. i'm tired by this long day, and i'm now in my bed, i can hear a lot of fireworks outside and guitars and screaming also. the moon is full and "rousse". it's nice.
on CCTV (maybe the music CCTV) there was traditionnal concert, and at this moment i felt that loved China. I feel that this country is incredibly rich of culture.
after the class, i was invited at the party for this special day, my class section 3 organised that. i sung " il etait un petit homme, pirouhette cacahouette.." first karaoke with chinese ( i already sung with japanese and korean before..) I was surprised by their demand, they asked me to sing " Helene je m'appelle Helene, je suis une fille , comme les autres...".

monday,
i'm now talking with my father and my brother, they finally have access to the adsl from the french region of bourgogne. it's incredible how the technology make people closer. in fact i more talking with some of my fiends who stay awake at night, it's funny.
today i went to the computer zone of beijing , very close to the main campus of my university (Beida), but VERY far from my campus maybe 40 km....
so i took the taxi and after the subway and after the air subway. i walk for long minutes to find the zone , but evrything is so large in beijing i got lost and tired... i decided to catch a taxi to find the place and we ride for several minutes to get there, soi was really lost. i was planning to buy a DVD DIVX player and speaker for my PC, but in fact the DIVX market is not ready in beijing (it seems) maybe cause the connections to abroad os too slow to download big files..but maybe in months it'll be ready. finally i just bought a mouse carpet...but a nice one.hehe
tomorow i've to start my class at 8h30 am , then have a good night.

Florian.

today's morning was hard, too much BMX from yesterday and my muscles are still painfull... the afternoon was better, we went ; Russell,Coco and me; to coco's appartement close to tien'anmen to move back coco's trees . Cause Russell (her boyfriend) is moving to singapore ( the trees were in Russell 's apt). after that we had a walk to the square where a lot flowers were displayed, and also many kites as usual. As usual, but it's always nice to see kites in the sky.
after we took a taxi to hohai lake, it's a very nice place where you can seat in front of the water, it remind me some place in chang mai (thailand). here we had a meeting with Ken, who will take the position of russell at the university.
Russ take us to the 22film bar, a bar who project underground (!) movies. the screen was off, but the place is cool, it's place where i should bring my guests.
on the way russ explain me storys about some castle or temple around there, one was the place where the generals went after a glorious battle, and another was the one where the generals went after a lost battle, at this place they execute them...
we also met a black cat who smells good perfume.

on the way i slept

russell in the car, it might be a ginko biloba


typical beijing neighborhood

good saturday.
For my first weekend since my arrival, i decided to have a visit to the sport center and the skatepark of Fangzhuang, i met in person Andrew Guan who introduced me to other friends of him. the skatepark was beingfixed, so we ride on the place juste close to here , it was very fun , a lot of people were watching us and young people followed me with their bikes.
Something was dangerous over there, the Kite's strings!because in beijing you always see kites in the sky the owners are often in the parks beside. very nice kites as well. i'm planning to try kite also. my university is a good spot.
after we went to Wangfujing, the " Champs Elysees" of beijing. there we ride at the church , it's the famous skateboard spot. there was a bunch of musicians performing traditionnal songs and also russian songs , in fact all kind of songs, the volunteer public was invited to perform with them.
I felt that beijing is getting more freedom, but well i don't know i'm just here since 6 days.. all these people was kind to me ( the skateboarders and BMX) it was a good saturday night.
after that i ride alone to tien'anmen to shorten my taxi ride, there was a lot of people there cause it's actually a special day maybe beginning of autumn, there was a lot of flower and miniatures of natural landscape of china. Mao was very well enlighted also.
i found a taxi who take me home, the price was ok 32 yuans (3 euros) so it's possible for me to have good week end like that however i'm far from the center.
here is some littles pictures.



the way to go; fangzhuang park

Andrew, the cool skateboarder and his shy girlfriend.

Sean from Boston and his girlfriend (?)

the kites dealer

the little food shops close to wangfujing

forbidden city is partying.

Friday was the research practicum, but my students don't have any project yet so i took sometime for shopping, i bought lockers , a pocket lamp and contact lens cleaning liquid. at lunch time we had an official speech by our dean and our chair cause the chair will move to singapore soon. i'm a bit sad cause he's the guy who introduce me to the university. after that i recieve moon cakes, to thanks me to be part of Beida.
i'm planning to buy a satellite antenna , CCTV is a bit boring.
tomorrow i will go to beijing center and maybe to a party in the evening, let's see.
now i have some strange feeling pictures, have a look.

the jetlag is finish and i feel like as usual, i mean in a good shape. when i'm travelling i'm often affraid about how to eat , how to find good food without eating always instant "things" ( but i like this...).On the campus i'm happy cause there is a cantine (cafeteria) and i can eat with my translators , students or colleagues, it's strange, i was completely against school cafeteria when i was adolescent, i hated school so much and now i'm a real teacher at the top university of china! ..well they asked me my degreed, but i don't have any, they will manage..the campus is not exactly in beijing but 20 km from Tien anmen square, since my arrival i stayed in daxing (campus place) but i plan to go to beijing center this weekend. i brought my BMX with me and would like to ride the skatepark of beijing. i alreaady send an email to the owner who gave me his phone number, i'm looking forward to meet the BMX rides scene..my first classes went ok, my students did no answer at the begening but now they are not affraid to ask.i prepare exercice at home with my laptop and Maya 6 and i remake them on video projector in the classroom so that they can understand step by step.I'm listening music on the laptop, mainly Mercury Rev that i just rediscover befote leaving paris ( deserter's song). maybe i will connect the minijack to the gigantic TV , like this i can use the speakers. but beijing is running low in energy and it's probably stupid to let such a big TV on to use only the speakers.i have to find a computer zone .. ( like akihabara in tokyo or pantip in bangkok) but it seems that it's not in the center.i 'll let you know.tomorrow is the research practicum, the students elect their teacher to help them.here is some roughly taken pictures taken around me :


my flat is big, i would like to keep empty as it is ( or maybe not)


the view on the students dormitory


the making of an exercice, "the bouncing ball" first animation exercice for the students , they have to feel th good timing to make ball bouncing well.


here's a still of the rendered animation


from 5pm , the students are practicing and playing several sports ; football, basketball, badminton, tennis ( also indoor in the hall!) racketball (?) and i'm jungling with a Jianquin (jianquin?) a chinese version of the vietnamese Da-Cau (also called shuttlecock)


the classroom with my most ambitious and serious students,those who stay after my class to refine their animation. it's very hot inside! all the computer are burning, the air conditionning is not yet installed...ouch..but I won't complain, i heard about the continental winter, it's approaching; and i will be happy to be warm by the students and computers.

OK, done.

i'm now in Beijing. As a teacher of 3D Animation at PEKING UNIVERSITY (BEIDA).
my flat is very big, the TV is inly in chinese. I went to supermarket to buy the basicsthings, it was smeeling very strong , tofu but strange tofu. tomorow is my first class, at 8h30 i wish i can wake up . it seems that there is several problems of coordinations in the school . i will see by myself.
AH! my credit card got retained by the ATM machine, hopefuly i don't need it cause i have no money on my bank account in france.
so ...i'm going out on the campus to find something to eat.
see you.