Living Under Fluorescent Lights

Pictures: me my chinese teacher and my roommate. The night street we ate dinner at. My room. Doing Taiji.

I’m about to start my second week of classes in Beijing. It kind of has been a frustrating week and a half. It’s very tiring not being able to understand what anyone is saying. I feel like I should be able to pick up on things but when I hear Chinese I still freak out and am unable to comprehend. I am hoping that with time this will go away and I will feel more comfortable with the language. I went to the post office to send some postcards and prepared the lines I was going to say, “wo xiang jin zhege” (I think that is “I want to send this.”) But when I said that to the post-woman while handing her the postcards she didn’t respond. In fact she didn’t say one word to me. She even expressed the price of the postage through the use of a calculator. I can understand numbers! It is the one thing I can comprehend! Oh well, maybe next time.
Friday was Louisa’s birthday so we all went out to dinner at a restaurant on Yandaixiejie, a street lined with restaurants that are open all night long. The street was packed with brightly colored signs and decorations. We decided to go to a popular-looking place that had rows of red lanterns hanging out front and a small fishpond. Obviously seeing the live fish made us want to eat one so when we were placed into our personal room, we had a party of 13, we ordered that, braised eggplant, spring rolls, green beans, sweet rolls with glaze, lotus root, and egg. Two whole fish came served on a stand with a fire underneath and a bazillion red whole chili peppers on top. It was delicious but very spicy. We were all in pain with tears running down our cheeks but unable to stop eating the deliciousness. After dinner we went to Houhai, a bar district that was recommended to us. Judging by the crowd it looked like a hot spot for the wealthier Chinese and foreigners. We were outraged by the prices for drinks, 50 kuai for a mixed drink. Of course we have become ridiculously cheap in one week, unable to pay 7 USD for a drink so we had a hard time settling down at a bar even though they had great live music and a great atmosphere. But we were able to bargain down and get a cocktail for 25 kuai at a smaller sketchier bar. Next time we go we will have to have a different attitude about pricing. Saturday we woke up at 10am for our Taiji class. We weren’t able to feel our fingers it was so cold outside. But we know now 18 of the 24 moves! It is starting to get intense, for the first time I was sore after Taiji practice. It might also be because of the run around the perimeter of the campus I went on but nevertheless the poses are getting challenging. There is one move, number 16 Snake Creeps Down, Golden Rooster Stands on Left Leg/ Zuo Jin Ji Du Li, in which you have to squat down and balance on one leg putting a lot of pressure on your knee. After Taiji we took a bus to Wudaokou Fuzhuangshichaung, a clothing, jewelry, miscellaneous items market. It was an opportunity to use my newly learned Chinese bargaining skills. I wasn’t able to make much leeway on the clothing and shoes that all looked way too small but I was able to knock down the price of a cute “I am Happy” mirror. Today after Taiji class we went to 798, the avant-garde, contemporary art district in North East Beijing. It took an hour bus ride to get there and it was freezing outside but we were very impressed with the quality of the artwork. We were able to go to an opening show and see an amazing multimedia art display.

I feel lucky to be at Peking University. First off it is a very competitive school and the most prestigious in China. Secondly it has a history that is intertwined with Chinese history. In 1919 the May 4th Movement (protesting the Treaty of Versailles’ article that gave Germany’s concessions in Shandong to Japan, not returning it to China) was generated by the president of Peking University, Cai Yuan-Pei and students. They protested on Tiananmen Square until June when the government agreed to not sign the treaty. The new culture movement, rise of communism, was cultivated at Peking University. Mao Zedong worked in the library at Beijing University as a librarian assistant. The library is the largest in Asia. I’m excited to check it out, and hopefully find an acceptable nook that can compare to the nook in McCabe.