So you’d think that I had a more exciting past week, considering that it’s nearing the end of my Beijing experience. However, as I indicated before, I’ve got SARS (again joking) and so spent most of the week in bed. I would normally press on and not be such a baby, but I knew that if I got sicker, I’d have to go to either the on-campus Chinese-speaking doctor or the American hospital on the other side of town, both very inconvenient options. Luckily, though, it looks like I’m getting better. So on to my boring week. I put off going to the World Bank until Tuesday, where I had a pretty boring day. Most of the people I have to call for my job are out of town, since everyone with a brain gets out of Beijing in August, and returns to Britain, America, or wherever else they’re from. Calling, however, has been a good confidence test for me, since I have to sound important and self-assured on the phone to get through to the important people I’m calling. My supervisor at the Bank is also a really interesting guy who has given me a lot of info about people to make connections with in DC who work in US-China relations. Connections are getting more and more important the closer I get to graduation. At this point, though, I’m pretty confident that I can find a job in my field in DC after I graduate. Believe me, I know how lucky I am. So work on Tuesday, relaxed Tuesday evening...
Wednesday I also just rested, but that night I went out to hotpot with my friends. I described hotpot earlier, but left out the funny incident that happened. Mom’s going to really like this story. Sorry, mom. This certain hotpot establishment is popular with students and Beijingren alike for its free beer, and as I described in my last blog, everyone at this restaurant also gets their own hotpot, which includes a little can of paraffin that you light on fire. Well, it turns out that fire and free beer are really not a good combination. I learned an important lesson that night, almost to the disadvantage of my eyebrows. When you are done with your hotpot, do NOT try to blow out the flame. Bad idea. And this time, I learned not to try to relight your flame yourself. Let the fuwuyuans (servers) do it. Both times I went, I was singled out by the fuwuyuans as the “problem foreigner.” That just means that they lurk around the table with four other fuwuyuans waiting to see what stupid thing you’re going to do next that they can laugh about. As my cousin would say, good times.
Thursday we had a group pizza party and lecture. The pizza here is pretty good, but if you go to a local place (and not the Pizza Hut that is tantalizingly close to our school) it involves a lot more corn and tuna that you would normally expect on pizza. And pepperoni isn’t really done. Just two more weeks before I resume my normal status as Manny and Olga’s number one customer, along with my boyfriend. The lecture that we listened to was particularly interesting, as it was on the topic of Chinese perceptions of the US and Americans in general and the lecturer really toed the Party line. We were the hegemonists, not China, who just innocently wanted to expand its “options.” One of our teachers, upon hearing this line, asked “What about Tibet?” but he pretended not to hear.
After the lecture, I went shopping with friends and then went to a Xinjiang (province in the west) restaurant. Delicious. We saw the belly dancer that performs there, but unfortunately, her snake friend who usually dances with her was off that day.
Friday I also relaxed for most of the day, although I went to sushi for dinner. I watched a movie with friends and went to sleep earlier. Yesterday I also relaxed (see the pattern?) and then went to a Thai restaurant with my friends in the foreigner bar area part of town, Sanlitun. I was planning on going to Houhai, which is a bar area on a lake, but ended up in Sanlitun instead, a place whose highlights include overpriced drinks, beggars, intoxicated foreigners, and lots of neon Budweiser signs. We headed to the one bar I actually like, which has a beautiful outdoor patio with white Christmas lights. Four floors up, it successfully removed us from the grunge of Sanlitun into the cool Beijing night area. Maybe it’s the heat of the day, or maybe it’s something else, but Beijing’s nights are more pleasant than any other city’s I’ve been to. A cool breeze is always blowing in from the south, crickets are chirping, and the air is the perfect temperature. I will definitely miss the evenings here.
That’s about it. I would write more, but I’ve exhausted myself. Time to scrounge for food (people eat very early here, and all at the same time. By 1 pm, there’s no food left at the cafeterias) and study a bit, since my final exam is on Wednesday. Just a week until I’m home. I’m so excited to be going back to the States, but I’ve been driving myself crazy lately wondering if I’ve done everything I wanted to here. I suppose I will have a busy week then doing everything left on my list! Bye!
