A Week in Beijing

I’ve now spent a week in Beijing. Prior to this trip I, unlike most of the people studying with me, have never stepped foot outside of America. I think I’ve adjusted well. I’m communicating in very broken Chinese, but I manage to get my point across. I can navigate the campus reasonably well, and I plan to take my first solo outing into the city tomorrow.

I have yet to fully adjust to Beijing time; I’m going to bed around 10 or 11pm and waking up around 6am. I don’t really have a problem with this, as it lets me be productive in the morning and go running before breakfast without dreading it.

The breakfast foods here in China are vastly different than in America (with the exception of French toast, which the natives seem to like very much). I have found the 素包子(su baozi, vegetarian dumplings) to be very tasty and, like the natives, I’m also a fan of the French toast. Lunch and dinner have a great selection of foods. I have no idea what I’ve been eating, but it has all been delicious. One curious thing about the cafeteria is the absence of napkins. I don’t know if the Chinese are so much better than me at using chopsticks, or if its their noticeable lack of facial hair (beards catch food, *sigh*), but they never seem to have a problem with not having a napkin. Another curious (to me, at least) custom is that the soy milk and cow’s milk are both served warm at breakfast. They could be served warm the rest of the day, but I haven’t had the urge for either after breakfast. All of the other drinks are also served only mildly cold (as in slightly below room temperature), and there is absolutely no ice to be found anywhere. It is impossible to cool down in this country (as I type this, I’m sitting in my dorm in my boxers in the dark attempting to cool down at least a little). I want to buy a fan, but I will have no use for it after my three months here are up and I doubt that I’ll be able to find a buyer when I leave since there is no summer session for regular students at 清华大学(qinghua da xue, Tsinghua University) and the Fall semester doesn’t start until about a month after I return to the US. Oh well, there’s only two more weeks until we get 空调 (kong tiao, air conditioning) in our dorms. Forecast for the next 10 days: 热 (re, hot), 有风 (you feng, windy), 满身尘埃 (man shen chen ai, dusty).

I went with a few people to the 圆明园 (yuanming yuan, Old Summer Palace…I think, but that doesn’t make sense to me). You can see pictures on flickr. We weren’t quite sure where it was, so we asked a Chinese man for directions. It turns out that we were actually very close, and he pointed us toward the ticket counter. His name is Yang Zhengxian (I don’t know the characters for his name) and he was the most helpful and nicest (native) person I’ve met here. He’s a chemistry professor at Normal University and his wife is currently in the US doing research at Yellowstone National Park. They just got married on May 1st. We tried to treat him to lunch after he walked and talked with us in the yuanming yuan, but with typical Chinese politeness he refused (and we even asked the requisite three times!). I hope we were good ambassadors for America.

Messing up the chronology, on the way to the Old Summer Palace, I took what I feel is one of my best photos. Well, three photos: one, two, and three. Enough self promotion!

A few friends and I went wandering around a small part of Beijing called 五道口 (wu dao kou, 5th intersection) today. It is a shopping area that grew around a subway stop (or maybe vice-versa). We found a coffee shop and I was able to satisfy my withdrawal cravings. I don’t know if the coffee was exceptionally good, or if I was just grateful for coffee, but I thoroughly enjoyed my cappuccino. It was just as good as I can get back in the US (which, I know, isn’t saying much). I might make that a regular place to visit, but the prices are a bit high. The cappuccino was 22 kuai, which is roughly 2.90. Compared to everything else in this country, that’s really expensive. For example, a can of coke can be had for 2 or 3 kuai. Speaking of the 可口可乐 (ke kou ke le, Coca Cola）, it is delicious here! Much better than American Coke. I hear that its the real sugar that makes it so much better.

I also go to class here! Today was the first day of class, and I’m feeling pretty good about my competency. There are a few star pupils, but I think I’m on par with most of the students. Our 老师 (laoshi, teacher) is nice. She’s about 5 months pregnant with, I presume, her first child. I am guessing that its her first child due to the government’s limit on the number of children couples can have. I hope her pregnancy continues without complications. I’m sure there will be more news on class at it progresses. Pictures to come soon.

Its 11, and I’m feeling tired. 再见 (zai jian, see you later).