Ajka in China

About a week ago I experienced something really amazing in Beijing. What was it? Hmmm… Considering that I live in Ireland, the answer might be a bit surprising. It was rain In the evening, after the league games, a couple of us decided that we want to have some western food. There are no western restaurants near our place, so we had to take a bus to WuDaoKou – the closest place full of shopping centres, pubs and such. Food was good, people nice, everything perfect. Only that… on the way back to the bus stop all of  a sudden I felt as if someone started pouring buckets of warm (!!!) water all over me. For the first time in my life I experienced an acid torrential rain. It was pretty exciting! No kidding – after 5 minutes of such rain the street we were getting the bus from was already under about 7cm of water! To actually be able to get on the bus I had to jump over a 1m long ‘river’. There was not one dry piece of clothing left on me The bus journey itself was pretty amazing too. When I looked out the window it felt as if I was on a boat. All I could see was waves of water reaching up to half of the height of the bus! For a second I was wondering if I will have to swim to my apartment Luckily, once I got off the bus, the water reached only up to my ankles (haha) and I ran 400 metres getting more and more soaked (if that’s even possible). Unforgettable experience

Last Tuesday I went for a trip with the 3 of my friends to a city 120km away from Beijing, called Tianjin. In the 19th century Tianjin opened to foreign trade, mainly with Britain, France, Japan, Germany and Russia. I found the architecture in there quite confusing, it was as if most of Europe and China literally crashed into each other. Because of the foreign trade there are buildings with typically British, Spanish, Japanese, French (and many others) and of course Chinese architecture right next to each other. I updated my Picasa album with some photographs, have a look if you’re interested. I’ve never seen anything like that before and found it totally amazing. We also went to the Astor hotel, it’s an extremely posh and famous place. We couldn’t just pass it without going inside I’ve never been to such a posh place before. The chandeliers, carpets, tables, chairs, stairs, handrails, everything! was literally stunning. The funniest thing about the hotel is that it’s not really that expensive. Well… For Chinese standards it is. For European – not really. I was slightly tempted to actually get a room in there, since it cost slightly over 1000 yuan (roughly 110 euro worth) and enjoy the luxury. Well… Maybe next time, haha ^^ While we were sitting in the big, common room at a table a man dressed up in a suit came to us and introduced himself. He was asking us where we’re from and such. Somehow he must have liked us. It turned out that he’s actually the manager of the hotel and he invited us to the hotel museum. He even gave us free tickets and an English speaking guide! Something like that doesn’t happen every day. I still am pretty shocked The museum was very interesting, I even found out that one of the Polish prime ministers visited it in the 1950′s and an Irish man opened a pub in there! The history of the whole museum is really complicated and full of exciting events as well. Thank you so much for your courtesy, Mr. Lee! The day in Tianjin was one of the most interesting ones I’ve had in China so far

After the sightseeing we went to a local market. I bought 2 fans, some puzzles and a Chinese style dress. I absolutely love Chinese markets I put up some pictures from there onto my Picasa album as well. Enjoy!

Time for the follow up on my tournament games! Sorry about not updating the blog for sooo long. I guess I’m getting a bit lazy! Anyway – in the morning of the second tournament day I found out that I have to face another 3d player called Ville, at the same time getting to play on the third board in the room for the cool people I was pretty delighted with that! I played the best I could, but still – I made a couple of bad mistakes such as a bad misread in the early middle game. My endgame also wasn’t as good as it should be. I ended up losing by 13 points. Usually I feel quite disappointed after a lost game, but this time if was different – after all Ville is a 3d player with a lot of experience, and I still could hold quite an even game against him. I was happy with my performance in the game.

In the last round I was paired with Kew – a Malasian 1d player. He’s a strong 1d, I think. His fuseki was so much better than mine, he basically owned me in it! I was near tears and wanted to give up immediately. At that stage Jeff came to have a look at our game and told me not to give up. So I decided to fight! In the early middle game I had no choice but overplay. He made an invasion, so I decided to threaten his group near by (I don’t know how dangerous that threat was tbh) to strenghten my position. Once he defended his group I was happy, since I could kill the invasion. The game evened out a bit. Then, all of a sudden, he played in the middle of my moyo. Way too deep. We started a violent fight, which I found quite tough. I managed to win it and I’m proud of my reading in this game

If you’re interested in how the games went in more detail, I’ve uploaded them. Check in the links!

After the tournament I got promoted to a higher league again. It my opinion the league was much too strong for me and I had a small argument with Jeff about it. Most of my opponents were going to be 2d and I just I knew I’m not going to be able to beat them, especially after such a tough tournament. Jeff said that he doesn’t have a choice though and I had to get along with it As I predicted though, I lost every single game during last week. My opponents were just too strong. And so I’m back in my good, old C2 league

Last week our group went to a Japanese Go club. It was quite an experience, almost like a tournament! There was about 20 of us against 20 of Chinese players. I got to play 3 Chinese amateurs, it was really exciting since I didn’t know what to expect at all. At first I had to play against a 3d. His fuseki was very strong. I made a very weak group that I had to run to the centre with. Somehow I managed to make it safe and for most of the game I was behind by about 5-10 points. Unluckily though, during yose I made a huge mistake – I forgot that I have to be careful with the above mentioned group and I just killed myself. So I lost by resignation In the second game I got a much weaker opponent. The way she was introduced to me was more less like that: “This is a beginner player, she’s only been playing a few months. She’s about 1k”. That statement took my breath for a second, I got quite a fright! What if she beat me? A player that played Go for only a couple of months? I couldn’t refuse the challenge though. We played the fuseki and it was quite even, I must say that she played really well. However, her middle game was maybe at a 10k level. It was easy to cut or kill or just to make a huge territory. I won that game quite easily. My third game was definitely the hardest. I was paired against a 1d – quite a big challenge. Again – after the fuseki I was a good bit behind. It seems that the Chinese players spend a lot of time studying the openings and josekis, but they’re not as good at reading and fighting. I was caught not knowing a joseki, which was quite embarrassing… But then I started fighting for the points in the centre. I cut off some of my opponent’s stones that were in the way (haha ) and won by roughly 20 points (7.5 points komi, Chinese rules). Overall I was happy with my performance at the Go club. I felt I played well, despite the fuseki mistakes I made. At least now I know what I have to study more

That’s all for today. Hopefully the next post will be more about China and not playing Go

On Wednesday and Thursday we had an internal tournament. It was 5 rounds, Japanese rules, 6.5 komi. I got to play against many people from our school that I haven’t played before, which was pretty cool! I also did unexpectedly well in the tournament – I won 4 of my games, losing only against a 3dan player.

At first I felt a bit nervous about the tournament, as usually. I tend not to do well because of that, the tension just overwhelms me a bit and I can’t think straight. Somehow though, this time the tension and nervousness lessened quickly and I just played the games I normally would. My first game was against Alex, a Russian 2kyu player. The fact that I’ve played him before in the league made me feel more relaxed about the game. I think he’s a very strong player, he only lacks the knowledge of many josekis and fusekis. I had black stones and started with my favourite fuseki, the Kobayashi one. Since he didn’t know it, I got an extreme advantage at the very start of the game. On top of that I attacked his weak group as soon as he tenukied. The group died and after a several more moves I won by resignation.

My second game was quite challenging. I got paired against a 1dan player called Robert. At first I freaked out a bit, because I still consider myself a 3kyu player (ok maybe not after this tournament, but before that round I did). I decided to play my best though and it worked I ended up winning by komi.

The third round was most surprising. Unfortunately I don’t have it recorded, it was a bit complicated My opponent this time was even a bigger challenge – a Finnish 3dan called Markus. When I saw the pairing I was sure I’m going to be executed during the next 30 minutes. I bravely sat down in front of him and wished him a good game (I really wanted it to be a good one and not just get slaughtered after 50 moves ;( ). To be honest – it wasn’t a good game. I felt bad about it afterwards. In the early chuban I created a very weak group that he wanted to kill immediately. I found a way to cut off his corner though and started a huge semeai between his corner and my weak group on the side. It was like one, huge life and death problem. So hard to read! I played a move I considered correct. Markus thought for a few minutes and did the most unexpected thing ever – he played at 1-1 spot, at the same time putting 2 of his stones into self-atari. The few people watching the game held their breath (I did too) and started blinking, as if they didn’t believe what he’d just done. I didn’t either. I just captured the stones and started giggling. So rude! Conclusion – I won against a 3dan player by resignation ACCIDENTALLY.

That’s pretty much all for today. I will briefly describe the games from the second day later/tomorrow. If you wanna view them, they’re under:

http://yoostinah.com/games/

Today about my normal day schedule. And some funny stories as well

Ok, let’s start from my very first day. Once I finally arrived at our apartment I got quite a shock… I went to the common room and there were about 6 people sitting around a table, each of them with a laptop playing Go on KGS. I said “Hi” and only after about 5 or 10 seconds they noticed that someone new has arrived . For the first few minutes I was terrified that I will have to spend my time among people that aren’t able to talk! Thankfully, it turned out a lot better than I thought. All the Go players  here are really nice and fun to be around with. Just a little bit shy at the start. Once you get to know them a bit better though, they show their evilness (the kinda good evilness, if you know what I mean) that’s hidden deep inside…

Ok, my normal day schedule:

• 10:00AM – 2 hours lecture on josekis, fusekis, sometimes pro games reviews, Go problems
• 12:00-2:00PM – lunch time!
• 2:00PM – league game
• Late in the evening – restaurant!

So it’s not as intense as I thought it would be. To be honest, I actually do some Go problems myself during the free time as well. Everybody does.

I must admit that the food in here is pretty amazing. Every day we get some rice with vegetables and different types of meat for lunch. In the evening we pick a restaurant or a canteen near by and order plenty of dishes that we share. The tales are very handy – all of them have a round, spinning glass on it (I will upload a picture soon). It makes it easy to share all the dishes between everyone. I absolutely love having my meals that way, I can already tell that I will miss it when I’m back in Ireland. It’s so sociable, lots talking and just fun. And, the dinner itself takes about an hour!

Ok, time for the funny events. Yesterday we went to a shopping centre. It wasn’t really THAT different to our ones, except for a few things – for example a really big Arcade zone (basically many many many game machines such as DDR etc ).  At one stage Juri (a 5d Finnish player) and I decided to go for a walk around in the shopping centre. We found this amazing offer in a clothes shop: BUY ONE GET ONE!!! Apparently, they forgot to add ‘…FREE’ at the end of it. We started laughing at it so hard that most of the Chinese people around us started staring even more than they usually do… Fun Pictures will follow =) Soon after that we went to a stand full of colourful things like bracelets, necklaces etc. There also were those tiny jars with some pills inside (they seriously looked like drugs) and a label: GUARANTEED LOVE <3 (or something along those lines)… I found if funny. Juri did too. How about you?

That’s more less it, it’s hard to describe all that’s happening here.  Next time I will write about our poker nights That’s all for now, see you soon!

Well, my dear friends, I made it! Here I am, on a different continent, in a completely different country that I’ve wanted to visit for a long, long time. What’s different here? Pretty much… Everything. It might sound strange, but the first thing that I noticed about Beijing (I was still on the plane) is that all the rooftops are either blue or red. I found that quite cool. The landing was a bit shaky, for a brief moment I thought we’re all gonna die But that was nothing compared to my trip to my new home from the airport. Everyone complains at Irish drivers… Hmmm, you should come here and see what crazy (but also very good!) drivers are. I nearly got killed a good few times yesterday. Apparently, in Beijing the cars seem to be moving as much sideways as forwards. I guess you know what I mean by that All that entertainment comes with a lot of beeping. And… nobody gets mad! It’s totally amazing, such behaviour on the road is just normal. Beep here, beep there, yea, I will just go in front of that car, fun, fun, fun! I could not believe it… Takes time to get used to. Just close your eyes and let somebody drive I guess. It’s a pity you can’t do it while crossing the road – as Jeff (my teacher) said, in this country the cars go first, not people. I also was taught not to trust the traffic lights. Even when they’re green I can still get killed. The only way to cross the street here takes a few steps:
1) find some people that want to cross too
2) join the crowd
3) cross

I guess that would be it for today. Gotta go, I have a class in 30 mins! See ya =)

My name is Justyna and I’m a 20 years old Computer Science student. This year I’m going to China for 2 months – big holiday, probably biggest in my life so far! The main purpose of me going to Beijing is to study Go (it’s a logical, strategy game that comes from China – check in the links!) and improve my Chinese. I’m leaving on the 24th of June – only 13 days left!!! I must say I’m getting a little bit nervous about it. I’ve never been outside of Europe before and I don’t really know anyone from the Chinese Go School. Hopefully the people there will be nice and I’ll make lots of friends!

I guess that’s all for now, I just wanted to get started with the blog and see what it looks like

I will write more just before my trip or after my arrival in China. See you!