16 June 2007

And… Beijing!

The trip here was surprisingly painless. I stood in line for an hour waiting to check in, but the security line was short—and a long wait to check in equals a short wait at the gate. As I watched the rest of the plane board, I tried to evesdrop on as many Chinese conversations as I could.

On the plane, I sat between “June” and “Steve”—the former, a woman who was coming to China for a 22-day adventure tour, and the latter, a businessman who two weeks ago came to China to adopt a baby girl. He was going back this time just for work. June sat by the window. Steve sat on the aisle. June and Steve happily chatted away over me, who sat in the middle, and so I abandoned my studying efforts and joined the conversation. When June and Steve were asleep, I read The Kite Runner, which I’d give a thumbs up. Talking and reading—and the fact that it never got dark—made the flight go by quickly.

When we began our descent into Beijing, I looked down and asked June, “Is that fog?” The answer, unfortunately, was no: LA’s smog is nothing compared to Beijing’s (see picture). I read that the city’s plan is to shut down its factories before the Olympics, and I hope that they do so, because I can’t imagine how athletes will really exert themselves if they can’t breathe.

I met three of our teachers and about ten other students just outside of customs. Our bus drive from the airport to the Beijing Language and Culture University’s (BCLU) hotel offered us a glimpse of the city—all I could think was “wow.” Beijing is very modern!! I’ll try to post some pictures of buildings below.

At the BCLU, I checked into my room, which is very nice and clean. It is on the sixth floor and has a window overlooking the BCLU soccer field—I lucked out! After I checked in, I unpacked, took a shower, and met with a group of students for dinner. (My bathroom here is a shower with a sink and a toilet in it. Every time that I bathe, the water pools on the floor and my wastebasket literally floats.) We walked out of the BCLU’s south gate and went to a Korean restaurant, where 30 of us stuffed ourselves for 800 kuai (a little over $100). I couldn’t believe the quality and quantity of food that I ate for $6—noodles, rice, vegetables, cooked meat, omlettes.

The students here are down-to-earth and friendly. At dinner (last night was the only night here when we’re permitted to speak English), we learned each other’s names and bit into strange-looking tempura together on the count of “1, 2, 3…”. I think that the tempura was seaweed wrapped around clear noodles, but for all I know, it might have been seaweed wrapped around glowworm. Yesterday, only half of us went out—today we should meet all of the other students from Harvard, Yale, Tufts, Berkeley, etc.

In an hour, we begin our orientation. We take the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, or Chinese Level Test) in the morning and attend a ceremony in the afternoon.

Now, it’s six thirty in the morning (ah, jetlag) and I’m headed down to breakfast. My goals for the day are: buy school supplies, and more bottled water.