Creeping up on three weeks

I will have been in Beijing three week tomorrow, Friday, July 4th. A group of us have decided to go out to a 西餐馆, a Western style restaurant, to celebrate that and, of course, the Fourth. Not too much will be going on here for that, so we'll have to have our own fun. There will be no fireworks and no barbeque, but I suppose we will have to make do with what we have.

Beijing is by no means a fantastic city. The life here pales in comparison to that at home. It is very difficult to find the same types of things, and even when you do, they have been made differently or have different ingredients. The diet coke is horrendous. It is sweeter and has a very strange aftertaste. They aren't really into diet here anyway, so I'm lucky if I can find it. The only good coffee is at Starbucks, a luxury when I'm far enough away from 北语, Beiyu - the school where I am staying - to find one. Coffee is not only very expensive to import, but this is also a tea-drinking culture. It is been hard to adjust.

Not only that, but 海淀区, the Haidian district, is undergoing a lot of construction. Walking on the street is not easy. Sometimes I feel like I'm back on the Great Wall. Not only that, but it has been raining every single day, which I'm told is a rare phenomenon for Beijing summer, but, in any case, the piles of dirt on the street quickly turn to mud and flow down the sidewalks. I am beginning to understand why Beijingers are always underdressed.

That aside, Beijing is an extremely large city. I live a good 45 minutes from the city center on a good day. The subway is extremely cheap and easy to use, but you have to be on it all day and change lines several times to get to where you want to go. Fortunately, most cars are air conditioned, and the newest lines have brand new, very clean cars. But they are packed, even very late at night. 

I'm also beginning to understand how it might feel to be black, for example, in an all white city. Even though there are a lot of foreigners here, there are 100 times more Chinese people, and since this society is seriously lacking in racial diversity, foreigners are extremely easy to identify. Stares abound, and not necessarily ones of disapproval, but rather of interest or amazement. I can tell that the Chinese people get a big kick out of hearing American students speaking half Chinese and half English. They still can't believe that white people are speaking their language. I can tell they appreciate it.

There is only one week left of this term, and then we will be conducting our 社会调查, Social Study, for one week. I will be staying in Beijing (lucky me), to learn about the Beijing's ever-changing economic situation. It should be interesteing; they've lined up a lot of great speakers and interviews for us. We have to write a report afterwards as part of our class grade. After that, we have another 4 week semester. And then I will, Thank God!!, be able to come home. 

44 days, and counting (fastidiously).