The great wall

This morning I woke upp very early by a loud noise. I believed that is was the door bell but I did not bother to do anything because there are three people sleeping just next to the door. Soon it stopped and I went back to sleep. Nobody came in. Later I was thinking about that it could have been an alarm sounding when the power got back online again. It was supposed to be shut of at 5 in the morning and then soon be on again. But later I heard that the power was never out so now I am wondering if it was just a dream... Well... this might need some more investigation.

I got upp and went to the west gate where the buss was supposed to be waiting for us. It was not yet there but most from our gang was there waiting.

During bus trip we chatted and solved some tesujis on my moble phone.

The wall was indeed great! Great view! Awsome construction.

There were People selling stuff at the base of the stairs up to the wall. They where shouting and running up to us with their stuff and wanted us to buy. "Only one dollar!" I just said "Sorry I don't have anny dollars..." and they stared wondering at me. Maybe they did not understand english or they thought it was strange that I didn't carry any dollars. Some of the guys bought hats and fans and they did a pretty good job with the bargening.

We all came upp on the wall and walked a bit on it. Then we stopped to eat lunch and playing go at the wall. The lunch was a large peice of bread with pineapple jam inside. Later a guy from our group walking on his hands down the stairs on the wall. That looked quite cool.

Then it was time to walk down again. I had no problem walking up all the stairs but it was really exausting for my legs to walk down. It was almost that my legs could not support me the last part of the descent.

Two guys went going further away on the wall and didn't come back and they had to take the local buss home. We waited a long time for them and we tried to call them and tell them to hurry but the mobile phones did not work up there. So we had to leave them. I am sure that was a fun adventure for them to get home by themselves.

On the bus ride home everybody was really tired and most of us went to sleep. As usual I can not sleep on busses or airplanes but that was ok.

When I got back home and looked myself in the mirror I realised that I had burned my neck in the sun. Not to bad but a sunblock would have been good to wear today.

Later we had dinner and drank Bao Yaou. We all got a bit drunk and that was a bit fun. The dinner was at a "Hot pot" place. Hot pot is two sauces that are slowly boiling and you put raw meat and vegetables in it for a while. One sauce is white and mild, the other is read and super spicy hot. I was sitting by the spicy sauce and it really hurted in my mouth when I ate it. God but too spicy.

Back to the classroom I played two blitz games. I won first an even game agains a 10 kyu after that I won an even game against a 5 kyu. But we all were a bit drunk so that doesn't say anything really.

Now it is time to shower, shave and get some sleep.

Bad stomach...

Today when I woke up my stomach was in a bad mood. Probably from the salad I ate yesterday. I had a rather quick bathroom experience. Then a quick shave and of to class without breakfast. I wasn't that hungry so it was ok. But I got to class 15 minutes too late. The class had started... shame on me. We studied some more josekis for two hours until it was time for lunch. I was pretty hungry by then. The food was very good as usual but I didn't manage to eat it all. Soon after lunch my stomach started to feel weak again. But lucky for me no emergency, just a weak feeling. I played a game in the afternoon that was quite interesting. Maybe our teacher will review it in class later. Then it was time for dinner and I was thinking about skipping it but I decided to try to eat and see how it goes. There where no problems and I feel fine again.

During dinner a drunk chinnese man at the table next to ours started shouting in chineese. To us? No to service. He was shouting in a strange dialect so the chineese at our table had a hard time understanding what he was angry about. But later we found out that he was uset because the service was not as he expected.

After dinner I went to the mall to find some shoes. Sadly I did not find any. I'll have to go back later.

Tomorrow we will see the great wall. Up at 07:00.

00:30 good night.

A usual day

Very tired and had no time to shave or do my hair. Just shower.

5 minutes late for class. But it's ok. One persn did not show up at all and two others were later than me. The teacher was in the classroom and eating bread when I came. So a couples of minutes later the class started

We went through some josekis from 10-12.

Lunch made for us that we ate in the classroom. Very good!
Lunch was an hour late...

Then we had afternoon class which is that we play games. I played agains Chili with 3 stones and I won by resignation. The teacher used that game for todays review on the big go board because of an interesting fight in a corner. I played MrKibbles also that I won by resignation.

Later we ate dinner that we order partly by ourselves. The chineese friends were at the table next to ours. As always delicious.

Then we played games in the classroom just for fun. I played agains my teacher (chineese 5D) with 6 stones handicap. I lost by 28 points. But very fun!

Then it is late again. The time is 01:38 and I have to take a shower and get a shave before I go to bed. I believe that I will be too tired in the morning to do it then.

Repetition och middag

Jag följde med Weiying till skolan medan hon repeterade en pjäs. Under tiden så åt vi middag. Jag åt en fransk gryta av biffkött och det sedvanliga riset till. Det var en smaskig sås och köttet var mycket mört och fint. Men det var lite för få fina köttbitar. Resten var mest fettbitar och andra oidentifierbara djurdelar. Så det var inte mycket som jag åt upp. :o(

The police called us in

Yesterday I sat the alarm on my mobile phone on 09:30. That believed that it would give me enough sleep. I calculated that in the last 61 hours I had gotten 4 hours of sleep. No wonder that I was tired. I fell asleep as soon as I put my head on my pillow. Then I woke up when the chineese pros came in to the appartment to sleep. But that was ok... I went right back to sleep again. Then the alarm woke up at 09:30 the next morning and I heard that the chineese was up and someone was taking a shower. But I was soooo tired so I shut of the alarm and went back to sleep. Then five minutes later another alarm on my phone woke me again and I had to turn that of as well. Works every time.. I always forget about the second alarm. But I went back too sleep. Later I woke again and slept again and woke again and so on... until I decided to get up at between eleven and twelve. But I was still dead tired. I went and took a look if the warm water was working and it didn't. I guess that the one showering in the morning got it cold. I took a look at the water heater and the power plug was in the socket and a lamp on the heater was shining. But no hot water. Then I saw the knob for water coming into the heater. It was shut closed so I turned it on. Then some warm water came. Great! I can take a nice shower! But the refridgerator did not start. I later complained abut it and I was told that we had to turn another knob in the hallway to turn the power on. That was just done (02:00) and now it is working.

After the shower I ate four slices of bread and some water. Because I had no workng refridgerator I had not baught anyting to put on the bread so it was a bit dry to eat but it was enough. At one o'clock I went to the class room and it seemed that I was one of the first swedes to be up. A couple of players had just left for lunch but I managed to find a person to play some go against. I played against Chili 5k and I played black with 4 stones handicap. The game was exciting and I won in the end by about 30 points. Yes! That is good! Mattias keep up the god work!

Then suddenly we were told that the police had ordered us to show up at the police station wd we should bring our passports. Oh... whats up? It seemed that we had to register ourself that we lived in that area and tell who lived in what appartment for how long time. On the way there I was told that previous the organizers had forgot to tell the police about this and there had been problems that took long to solve. But I guess they had done right this time because we just had to stay for about half an hour at the police station. The policemen seemed happy and in a good mode so nothing seemed wrong in any way. Later in the evening we even got a challenge to play a soccer game aginst the police department. We'll se how that turns out. Do we dare to win over them? ;o)

It seemed like forever but at 21:00 we went to eat. I had not eaten since twelve and I was starving. We went so the same restaurant as yesterday and soon the plates of food started to stream in. I ate and ate and ate and as usual it was delicious. We talked about the food and agreed that this is nothing like the chineese food in Sweden. I have never been specially fond of chineese food in sweden but this is something totally different. Well, I guess that the others were as hungry as me because all the plated were empty and when the bill came we had to pay $4 per person. (Yesterday we had to pay $2)

Back to the classroom I played another game of go. This time against a swedish 10k. The game started out even with a big moyo for black and one for white. After a couple of invasions it looked very good for me. One of his groups were dead in my eyes. Another close group was in danger. We faught about it and later a move appeared that I had missread and my opponent had missed it completely until now. Damn! There my group between is poor groups died. So both his groups is connected and alive and he got the whole corner that was mine. I resigned. I must play him soon again. I need a rematch!

Then I watched Myao slaughter a 3 dan on the Kim-server. It was quite fun. But I decided that it was time to go to bed so... Now the time is 02:30 and I'll go brush my teeth!

See you! :o)

The trip to Beijing, China

I went to the Arlanda airport in Stockholm where I live to meet the other go players that would go with me to China. I was a bit early when I arrived at 15:25. I got directly to the desk where I was supposed to check in. I looked around but noone from my group was there. I have just met a few of the players on tournaments so when I stand there I had to guess and imagine if this person is a go player or maybe that one.... But I found noone. So after fifteen minutes I started to get a little nervous. Maybe I am at the wrong spot? So I called Myao who told me he was in a car and would be there in 5-10 minutes and that the other guys waited att the check in. Still I could not locate anyne. So I waited ten minutes more and still no Myao. But ok... if Myao is late it might not matter if I am at the wrong place. He can call me if he misses me. Then... just a couple of minutes later a couple of guys walked up to me. I did not recognise them at first but then I saw that Chili was one of them. I did not match the face from my memorybank at first because he had a nice shave. He usually has a short beard durng touraments. And then Myao with familly popped up and we waited in line to check in.

When we got into the plane I was seated in line with four others from the gang on my right side and a chineese girl on my left side. The plane took of and after a while we got someting to drink. I got some coke and the girl next to me got some red whine. After that they served us some food. We could shoose between fish and meat and I ordered meat because I am often suspicious of fish. I regretted myself soon after I tasted the meat and I saw how the fish looked like. Well... too bad... I ate moste of it anyway. I was chilling and looking around when suddenly somethng beside me happened. I looked to my left and saw that the girl had spilled all her whine over the tray and it flooded over to her lap. Her napkin shortly got all soked in whine so I handed over my unused napkin. That helped a bit but now her jeans was all wet and also the seat she was sitting in. I felt sorry for her.

Later she started to talk to me about my trip and I then asked her about hers. She has been an exchange student at the university in Stockholm the last ten months studying international economics. So after that we talked a lot during the rest of the flight. It was nice and the trip got shorter. Oh... I almost forgot to mention the breakfast at the plane. We got a small baguette with a lot of ham and tomatoes. Pretty good sandwich that we drank tea with. The girl next to me was about to take a look in her teacup by the window and managed to spill out the tea on her self. Just typical.... two times on the same flight! Such is life sometimes... For her defence I can say that when I managed to sleep four hours before my trip, she stayed up all night packing all her stuff and cleaning ot the appartment she had lived in fro the past ten monts. She took all of her student books with her and I was such a gentleman and helped her with that bag off the plane. Then she had a transfer to another plane to southern parts of China. I hope you had a nice flight!

All the go players got a private buss to our apartments. The first thing I noticed when I got outside in Beijing was the dirty air. It is foggy and you feel that the air you breath is not clean. I guess I'll get used to it but it will be nice to breath the clean swedish air agin.

I will be living with the three proffesional players in one appartment. The other guys are living in three (I think) other appartments in other buildnings. We have our classrom in one of the buildings as well. Then we directly started to play go for fun. I started to play against a german 1 dan. I took 6 stones of handicap and the game looked very well for me. We did not have time to finish because people wanted lunch.

So we went to a chineese restaurant (What a surprise!) and we ordered in different types of food that we picked freely from a spinning thing in the middle of the table. Many things were great but some I could do without. When everybody was completely full there where still half the food left on the table!

Right back to the classroom and play more go. This time I started a game against a canadian 14 kyu. I got two big corners and he had chance of a big area in the center. Then a chineese 9 kyu took over when he had to go away for a while. This chineese handled the situation great and got the center by sacrificing a rather big group of stones on "my" side where I had set upp for territory. So now I was behind. I faught hard to get into the center but it was really tough but I managed quite a bit. When I then in the end game desperatly tried to invade the chineese made an error and I killed a group of stones and reduced a big area. Resign and I won. Yeah!

Now when I've been writing this I will go back to the classroom and try to post it in this blog. Yes, I am writing this offline for the moment. Then I guess it is time to go out for dinner again.

(back in my appartment and about to go to bed) I had no good luck in posting this text to my blog. I could not connect to my server. It seems that China has cencored my webserver for some reason. I do not know why? Maybe because I got informaton about games and stuff. They have some kind of autofilter that reacts on certain words in a webpage. I got my friend Jones in Stckholm to test if my server is working and he said that it is working fine. I will see how I will solve ths problem. I think that contacting the cineese government will not be the right way to go. My problem is probably to small of an issue for them. If you have any suggestions. Please contact me and tell me what to do.

Well I can say a couple of words about the dinner we ate tonight. It was very good and extremely cheap. We had about ten dishes and beer. For that we payed 15 sek each. That is about $2. So far I have tasted everyting. Usually I am very careful about what I eat because I do not want to get forreign bacterias in my stomach that makes me sick. We will se how this turnes out. Now I feel fine exept that I am very tired. I have now been up for 32 hours. The night before 4 hours sleep. My head feels like cotton with a slight ache and my eyes are hurting.

I have just managed to get the airconditon in the appartment to work. It took me some time to find a remote control with chineese characters but I figured out what is on and off. Before I found the remote controls I tried some knobs on the walls but I guess they just adjust the temperature. Another problem that I have not solved so far is the refridgerator. I can not get it to start. The same for the water heater. So I have warm water to drink and cold water to shower in. I hope the pro teachers comes later tonight and get these things working. Else I have to get that fixed first thing in the morning.

See you later! :o)

Today I Go 2 China!

Vamos!

Yes, today is the big day! In a couple of hours I'll take a cab to the airport. There Myao and the rest of the gang will meet up at 16:00. When everybody is counted we will check in and chill for a while. At 17:55 the plane will lift for destination Beijing in China. Yeah! :oP

After much tought I decided to buy a laptop. I baught it yesterday. Plain and simple Acer Aspire 3614 WLMi. Intel Celeron 1.6GHz, 1Gb ram, 80 Gb HDD, DVD-burner, WLAN, 15.4" Widescreen display. I am planning to sell it when I get home. Or maybe not.... or possibly... I have not decided yet. :o

Well, I was up all night installing the computer and deciding what to take with me in my briefcase. I got to bed at 04:15 and I sat the alarm to 09:30. But I woke up at 08:50 and since I have a lot to do before my trip I decided to get up. Directly after breakfast I went to get a haircut. I'll see if I can get a picture of it later... hehe... I wll be in China for two months so I'll need to get another haircut while I am there. That will get interesting. :o)

Played on KGS

This weekend I have played a couple of games on KGS aginst computer opponents. I did not have so much time to play so they are rather quick games. I played until I got a more solid rank and right now my rank on KGS is 13 kyu.

I guess that my rank is a little bit better if I take time and play against some human opponents. So what I managed now is not a really good measure of my strength just now. I did a couple of good moves and a couple of blunders. Especially in my last game. I let a dead group of stones to come alive and that might have lost the game for me.

2 days until I go to China

Hello!

Today it is only two days left until I go to China. I start to get nervous. What must I take with me? What kind of clothes do I need? I must give my sister a set of keys to my appartment. I need a haircut. I am thinking of buying a laptop that I can use when I am in China.

Well... the laptop thing... One will cost me about $750 and that is a lot of money for a computer for two months. I can sell it when I get home but how much will I get for it? I have no idea. So probably I will not buy one. I will need to find an Internet café regularly.

I have set up payment orders for my appartment costs. But I have some bills coming in next month so I must be able to pay them while I am in China. Well... there is much to think about... and I am sure (as always) that I have forgotten something.