One week in

June 8

My first week in China has ended well. It started off like a hurricane. I felt tossed about without solid ground, or a lead line, or an anchor. Everything was foreign - no familiar sound, smell, taste. It is kind of like a wave crashing over your head and if you have the will you swim back up and force your head above water. Last night, and lunch today I went out with classmates and was able to order food. I grant you that they give us picture menus and we usually point and say "yi ge" (one of these), but the Chinese names are all in characters so I don't know what they are. However, I am pretty good at ordering my drinks, getting a waitress to come over, and settling a bill. Small steps.

I know I am making progress though since my host mom is using less charades as she figures out which words I know and just uses those. I am able to tell her when I want to shower; that I don't drink milk; when I am coming home; that I am full and cannot eat anymore; and of course - "I have no idea."

Classes are exhausting. It is six hours a day, and at the end my brain feels ready to liquify. I have made it through four lessons in each of my speaking books, and one in my character book - more than I learned in a month on my own. So you skeptics who kept telling me I had to learn before I came, it is a great thing I didn't since I have no bad habits and my teachers are fabulous. My teachers think I am really brilliant, but I tell them no,  I just force myself to review at night before bed, and in the morning when I wake up. When classes end at 5pm I have an hour commute back home which is useful for decompressing. On the other hand, I am still being bombarded by Chinese. There is no way to let it pass you over. I see maybe 100 television screens in the metro on my journey home. The noise is constant: people, cars, horns, radios, televisions.  This is an adjust or be miserable situation because there is nothing else to do.

General Transit Map of my Commute


You can see Bei Hai there just to the east of point B, and south east of Bei Hai marked by the blue square is the Forbidden City. So I am right in the heart of Beijing which is quite nice, but sooo very far from school, and many of my classmates.

My classmates are fabulous. I actually only have one true classmate, Charles from Paris, and everyone else is a schoolmate. There are people from Portugal, Spain, Canada, the US, the UK, Germany, Hong Kong, and though not currently attending Nigeria, UAE, and Russia to name a few. On Thursday, the school had an outing for Beijing hotpot which I did not think was too terrible hot, but it was delicious. Basically, they bring you a bunch of dishes which you throw into your hotpot to cook, take them out when cooked, dip in your sauce, and eat. Pictures explain it better.

 I do have more pictures, but don't want to overwhelm the blog. So if you want to see them just shoot me an email and I will invite you to view my album.