Week 5 - 6 can best be characterized by an internal conflict, a contradiction of sorts. On one hand, you feel settled in enough to start exploring more. On the other, the assignments and papers and things start to increase… How do you make time for everything? Heh, including writing timely blog posts.. Once again I was not prompt with a blog post last week, but I do have good reason - on Wednesday, I had been rushing everywhere to get work done, plan trips (in which I mistyped my name, so I had to return the flight ticket and lost 400 yuan), and prepare for the one this past weekend to Inner Mongolia. And, Wix was going through some major updates and wouldn't let me finish my posts... Frazzled, I haven't been able to post, my apologies. 😣
Some updates to my day-to-day school life (follow along with the photo gallery; finally, Wix! I don't have a photo for every bullet point though):
The heating for Beijing has turned off, but there’s been a bout of cold weather (it snowed again… and I got soaked because I had no hood or umbrella). at night, i’m freezing!
But at the same time spring has sprung…. what
The air pollution has achieved the worst levels yet!! In Philadelphia, the level of pollution is around 30 AQI.. in Beijing that day, it was past 900 AQI… the air was yellow.. after class, I stayed in a cafe for almost the entire rest of the day, during which I worked on my 5000 word paper (submitted it right after I returned from Inner Mongolia). Note my surgical-looking face mask in the photo :o
The band thing is for real; I am borrowing a bass!
I started my low-key internship (hour+ of subway..and it's so so crowded). A photo of the pollution near the WeWork office + interesting print of the walls in the WeWork office...
I am continuing to spend a bit too much money on nighttime coffee/tea.. it’s definitely mostly a psychological thing; coffee makes me feel comforted haha. fortunately, I found a cafe with better wifi, huge tables, many outlets, and great vibes that’s open till 1AM!! The only con is that it’s slightly off campus.
The initial amazement with canteen food has worn off, but nonetheless I’m appreciative of it; I actually realized I’m going to miss it a lot, then wondered why I was thinking about missing study abroad already.. maybe this is a sign the weeks are going by more quickly than I expected.
I keep trying to experiment with a DIY holder that can attach to my bike basket for my to-go coffee; I’ve made some iterations (changing from cardboard box to bottom of a big plastic bottle), but none work that well yet. hopefully I get it right by the end of the semester.
New Experiences
Near/On Campus
Nearby Tsinghua is an area known as Wudaokou, filled with shopping malls, restaurants, etc. One restaurant/bar called Lush, started by Americans, has trivia nights on Wednesdays, so my friends and I decided to go! Trivia was quite fun; one of the topics was to guess a city based on top 3 TripAdvisor destinations. For a different category, I felt bad that I didn’t know the answer to a question about the US president who died of pneumonia quickly after he was elected (guess who??). The next night, I met with two others with whom I’ll play my bass (we’re a temporary “band”). One of them, whose father is an art professor here, so we talked and played music in her dad’s office, with all these magnificent paintings surrounding us. It was really relaxing and fun; I didn’t want to do my homework haha.
After a bit of work, my friends and I went to karaoke (KTV)! These karaoke rooms here are wonderful; you can choose from all the possible English songs you’d want, eat fruit, enjoy soundproof rooms, and sing for 3 hours for about 50 yuan (~$8)! We even ordered bubble tea from food delivery outside and brought it into our room. And of course who you come with makes the karaoke experience :) Fortunately 4 of us liked modern rock music, and so we actually sang “Take Me Out” my Franz Ferdinand, “Do I Wanna Know?” by Arctic Monkeys, and even a Muse song. But no worries, some classics (Sam Smith, Adele, Lady Gaga, “Mr. Brightside” etc.) were also sung (won’t embarrass my friends by posting videos here). I tried to follow some Chinese songs, to little success. Then, I also requested “Stayin Alive” by the Bees Gees since some of us enjoy “The Office.” (You know what scene I’m referring to!)
The Great Wall 万里长城
Of course, no Beijing experience misses out on the Great Wall! Just kidding, but my main intention was to see lots of cherry blossoms on the train ride to the Wall and then climb just a little of the Wall… but since there weren’t many blossoms, we compensated by climbing the Wall a bit more. I hadn’t been here since I was 8, and the steps are extremely steep. If you weren’t careful, you’d definitely slip! Again, I was impressed by how people so long ago were able to build this all…
Tianjin 天津
Last minute, my friends and I decided to go to a nearby city called Tianjin 天津. It's a city that has quite a bit of Western influence (you can definitely see it in the architecture). It was only 30 minutes away via high speed train. We first tried some interesting foods at the Ancient Culture Street, which looked a little too Chinese (probs to impress tourists), but nonetheless had some authentic components. We tried some typical Tianjin snacks (one was a funny tasting porridge with too many toppings), the famous 狗不理 pork buns, fried sweets, weird candies, and more. We also came across a huge marketplace area, where vendors were selling anything from cute bobble head dogs and Mao Zedong busts, to fake ancient gold coins and big bracelets made of seed shells. We then went to “Italian Street” which was basically a small street with European references ("flamenco" "Eiffel") thrown on every store/restaurant.. probably impresses the Chinese tourists, not us though!
Then we biked along the river, during which we saw many old men fishing, swimming in the river (they are technically not allowed to), and selling fish. Some families were walking by the river as well. It was a sunny Friday, and I liked seeing what a community does during a typical day in a quieter town. I was also proud of the last minute planning I did, and how smoothly the day went :) We arrived back in Beijing in time for my hotpot dinner (I still haven’t gotten tired of it! It’s just so amazing in China ah…).
Sanlitun 三里屯
This area of Beijing is notorious for clubbing/bars/restaurants, but don't worry, I'm not that wild! After my internship, which is nearby this area, my friends joined me to shop, try this awesome restaurant with Yunnan (province in China) cuisine called 中8楼. Afterwards, we went to the same secret American bar I mentioned before. There's a lot more in this area that I haven't checked out; hopefully I will though!
I'll detail my Inner Mongolia trip within the next 2 days! :) It was quite the trek.
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