beijing week #1

ah, 11:48 on a sunday morning. woke up at 10 (admittedly a little dazed), skyped with the fam back at the ranch (glorious!), lazily wrote out plans for the rest of the week, and now homework and errands loom. what to do? blog.

the main points of this week were 1) getting into the swing of our chinese classes, 2) settling in at BLCU and getting to know wudaokou better, 3) planning for my mummy and daddy's imminent visit!!!

chinese classes: ouch. back to 3 hours of intense instruction a week. but in this case, i am a lucky one. over the summer, i was baptized in the fire of the alliance teaching style, so i more or less know what to expect. my new classmates in 中文 301 at BLCU seem to be sharing my reaction from those first few weeks... feeling completely lost, like expectations are sky-high, and wanting to cry. two students actually dropped down to 201 so now our class is just 4 people (me, namgyel from bhutan, and two native cantonese speakers: jen my roommate and alex my hallmate).

this week, we will begin our afternoon classes. for everyone, that includes "contemporary chinese society" from 2-5 on tuesdays. for me, that also includes "chinese economy since 1970" from 2-5 on wednesdays.

finally, we also met with our language partners... meetings are 1 hour, 3 times a week. my partner is named liu jing 刘婧。she is a 25 year old graduate student earning a degree to teach english from BLCU. at first glance, you might wonder why she needs to acquire this degree, because she already looks like a teacher! that expression.. the glasses.. slightly cold demeanor...to my relief, our conversations are actually quite lively and enjoyable :) i'm just bummed that our relationship will be limited to "teacher-student," given that other alliance kids are already planning shopping dates and weekend trips with their language partners. plus, i miss sue and our ordinary friend-roommate-relationship immensely. nothing improved my chinese more than that!

BLCU: this week, my classmates and i spent our precious few free afternoons exploring the neighborhood and scoping out the places we will eat, drink, shop, bank, and meet our various other daily needs this semester. activities included: shopping for ridiculously cheap high heels at the nearest mall, waiting 50 minutes in line at the bank of china AND witnessing a fight there, interviewing a group of cheerful italians over lunch on what they like to do in beijing, making a little excursion to the nearby great bell temple, and participating in a local scavenger hunt put together by han bing.

here's your own little introduction to the campus! the international student building, the view from my room, our lovely abode (complete with tibetan prayer flags from my trip and piles of jen's phillies paraphenalia), and the BLCU cafeteria at lunchtime.





ah, and of course, witnessing my classmates' first encounters with chinese nightlife... priceless. like all american college students abroad, myself included, they are stunned by the (1) legality (2) dirt cheap prices of alcoholic beverages in china. our first night out had catastrophic consequences for some :P wudaokou's bars are truly student paradise though. packed with other internationals, inexpensive, and easy to get to (literally around the corner). last night, a few of us girls also ventured across town to the expat bar area, sanlitun. i'm happy because chinese people are actually much more present in the nightlife here than in SH.

i will spare you the details of preparing for my parent's visit, but basically they concern train tickets, hotel reservations in beijing and qingdao, cell phones, trying to contact "long lost relatives" in shandong province, etc. more interesting... our scavenger hunt ended at the beautiful qing dyansty summer palace last night. i was so happy for a second chance to return here on a cool, not-too-crowded day. over the summer when we visited, it was 100+ degrees, 80% humidity, with no room to breathe and chinese guides screaming into megaphones in every direction. last night was perfect! :)