Blue Skies

After four days of guessing whether the thick haze around everything was smog or fog, the weather has finally cleared up. You can even see the sky, which is apparently a rare thing in Beijing. Classes started on Monday, and the language pledge took effect this afternoon, which means we're only supposed to speak Chinese with each other. Unfortunately our Chinese isn't too great yet, and what Chinese we do speak is punctuated by English words, lest communication become so arduous that we just stop speaking all together.

Classes are simultaneously fast-moving and tedious, but I'm really learning a lot. We have about thirty new words and characters to memorize per day, as well as homework and compositions, which makes studying at night pretty rapid fire. In class, on the other hand, we spend three and a half hours going over the same vocab, topics, and grammar points. The topics are relevant but not exactly engaging. For example, yesterday's involved complaining about getting up early, and the advantages of showering in the evening (the chief one, in the book, being that that's when there is hot water. Luckily we have hot water all the time). Although it's not always thrilling, the teachers here are good and friendly, which makes class enjoyable, and my Chinese is improving rapidly.















My language partner is proving to be a font of interesting information about China, as well as fun to hang out with. On Monday night, I went to see a show that she was in. During the show, there were all sorts of acts: one-act plays, Peking opera-style singing and costumes, a brass quintet, and a jazz band. During the show I kept an eye out for my language partner, but didn't see her. Later on, when I saw her, she showed me pictures of herself in her complex get-up, in which she was completely unrecognizable. She could be one of the singers in this picture, I'm still not sure.

That's it for now, since I still have to study for tomorrow's test and write a composition about the bizarre assignment we had at the post office today.


Oh, and for those who are interested (Bridget) and want to try their hand at copying characters, here's my address:

100089 中国北京首都师范大学
海淀区西三环北路83号，国际文化学院
杜克大学留华学习班
Samuel Steinbock

If mailing from the US, it's probably a good idea to write "CHINA" on there, too. Good luck.

Oh, and one more thing: I made it so you don't need an account to comment, so let nothing hold you back!

I've now been in China for four days, but it seems like quite a bit longer. I met my language partner yesterday. She's a student at the university I'm staying at, and is assigned to speak Chinese with me for an hour every day. I liked her a lot, and was amazed at how easy it was to have a conversation with her. We talked about all sorts of things, including the movie Titanic, the one-child policy, and religion. She's in some kind of Peking opera-style performance tonight, which I'm going try to see.


I've had a number of pretty interesting experiences just wandering around and getting meals. Here's a picture of an outdoor exercise park that I stumbled upon. They have all sorts of workout machines for public use, though I think most of them are geared towards old people.

Here's another experience that perplexed me: since we're advised not to drink the tap water, I went to the store to buy a big jug of water to drink. I found that the cheapest kind tasted strongly of plastic, so I decided to get a slightly more expensive bottle, which cost about $1.50 for four liters. After I bought it, a few of the store's employees came over to me and said "Wow, that's imported water. How much did that cost you?" After I told them, they continued to admire the bottle, trying to figure out where it came from. I'm still confused about why they were so impressed with this water. I understand that it's not the cheapest bottle, and that they probably think it unnecessary for me to be buying water at all, but I bought it at the store they work at! This wasn't anything I had brought from home. Anyway, I guess I'm just underestimating how extravagant my habits seem to the Chinese, but it was bizarre nonethelesss.

Good morning, Beijing

I arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon, and it's now 6 am and I am uncharacteristically awake, thanks to all this time-changing business. Beijing is huge and overwhelming, but I'm excited to start exploring it. I did a little exploring yesterday, with a trip to Wu Mart, a grocery store a few blocks away to buy the essentials -- water and toilet paper -- which was pretty amusing. Grocery stores are always one of my favorite things to see in foreign countries since they are a window into people's daily lives. This one was set up almost like a bunch of separate stalls at a market, with people sitting in little booths to sell electronics and watches, in addition to all of the things you would expect a grocery store to have.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect about the pollution, but the air here seems pretty clear and breathable. It is, however, a little disconcerting to be able to stare directly at the sun, which looks like this at 7 in the evening, a couple of hours before sunset.

The program doesn't waste any time getting started; my placement test is at 8 this morning. I don't have too much to worry about, even if I have forgotten a lot of characters, since I'm only going to be doing second year no matter what.

Well, that's it for now. I'm sure there will be much more later!