Week 2

Life in Beijing has been getting better and better every day. I feel as I acclimate myself more with the city, I grow to love it even more. I still spend most of my time during the week in class or studying, but this week was so much more manageable in that I found time to do a lot of other things besides study.

One of my favorite parts of the week is Chinese lunch table. Every Tuesday and Friday we go to lunch at a nearby restaurant with our teachers and eat the most amazing Chinese food, (though half the time I don’t know what I’m eating…) We spend an hour or two at lunch just eating and talking with our danbanke teachers, who are graduate students at BeiYu. They teach our small classes from 9:30-12 every day and the one-on-one session every afternoon. Chinese lunch table is a great chance to get to know our teachers on a personal level. Chinese people really are just so nice, I don’t know how else to put it. Learning about their hobbies, boyfriends, career paths and whatnot has really developed not only a new understanding of Chinese culture and way of life, but personal relationships I feel I will definitely value for the rest of the summer.

Another highlight of my week was Friday night. It was unreal to say the least. I feel like I saw more of the city that night than combined so far. After a night out, some friends and I decided head to Tiananmen Square to watch the flag raising ceremony. It was amazing how few tourists were there and I think most of the Chinese citizens were eyeing us with confusion or disapproval since we were… dressed differently to say the least, (aka from the night before). It really was a sight to see though. As dawn broke and light flooded the square, I could ALMOST see the sky for a moment, (I haven’t seen the sun in I don’t know how long. The pollution is really getting to me – I feel it every time I run and I’m starting to get a bit depressed whenever I’m outside.) Cop cars circled the crowd playing a recording that had something to do with safety. Tiananmen obviously wasn’t full but there were a good number of people there and I could sense a strong feeling of solidarity among the crowd as the flag was raised and the national anthem played. It was pretty cool to be a part of that.

After the flag raising ceremony ended, most of my friends went home. Spencer, JinA, and I, however, decided this was obviously the perfect opportunity to go to KTV (karaoke). After a few hours of bad 90s music, we ended the night/morning at the Temple of Heaven. We got there before the gates opened, however, so while we were waiting to go in, we wandered around the park taking in the morning’s events: we watched masses of people practicing Taichi, (JinA was brave enough to join in), learned how to play a hacky-sack like game which we were unbelievably bad at, and observed two men painting calligraphy on the sidewalk. The park finally opened and we spent some time roaming around the temples before the lack of sleep finally got to us and we headed home.

The night seemed kind of surreal in that I had always pictured myself going to Tiananmen, Temple of Heaven, and other tourist spots during the day or on a planned outing. I like the way I can freely roam from place to place here– it reinforces the sense that I’m not really a tourist, but a student. Studying abroad gives me a sense of purpose in this city, like I’m adding something to my surroundings. Or maybe not necessarily adding something, but at least taking part in it. Even though I’m still going to a lot of tourist attractions, I didn’t exactly visit Tiananmen Square and the Temple of Heaven during peak tourist hours. I feel like this freedom is a really unique feature of spending the whole summer in one city and allows me to fully immerse myself in the culture.