Typical life in Beijing

I want to skip ahead and away from Yunnan to tell you about my experiences recently in Beijing. Obviously I have a lot to say about the Yunnan trip, but I don't want to delay my current happening any longer.

We started school two weeks ago. I am taking the equivalent of 20 credits at Elon this semester, which is actually overload, but I couldn't resist not taking one of my classes. I am enrolled in Intensive Beginner Chinese, China in the World Economy, Chinese Political Philosophy, and Sino-U.S. Relations. Intensive beginner chinese is taking the equivalent of two semesters of Chinese (although the equivalent to learning chinese in America is actually around 5 or 6 semesters because it is so hard to learn) jam packed into one. Therefore this counts as a doubley loaded class (8 credits instead of the typical four). We have Chinese from 9:50 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Most of the kids in this class have taken Chinese before so it is really frustrating for me because the class is so fast paced and I am one of two people that have never seen a single character or pronounced a single word...and yes we do learn the characters and have to be able to read them and no its not like there are just 26 characters and one character can have several meanings. It is also frustrating because again if you know me you know I don't like failing things and if I am going to be bad at something well I typically just avoid it and take the easy way out. Well I am actually trying to challenge myself in new ways and accept the fact that I'm not going to be #1 (for now). Crazy notion I know, but I am actually trying to conquer a weakness plus I couldn't stand the idea of taking baby chinese and leaving here without being able to fully converse with natives.

My other classes are awesome. They only run once a week for three hours though and most of the professors are businessmen or teach at other universities during the day and teach at UIBE (University of International Business and Economics) at night. Soooo when I would typically be spending my nights out on the field reffing or supervisoring at Elon, I am actually just sitting down for class in Beijing. Mondays are the worst because I have Chinese in the morning and then Chinese Political Philosophy from 4:30-7:15 p.m. and China in the World Economy right after from 7:30 - yes 10:15 p.m. at night. Needless to say I am starving for dinner by the time I get out and my friends and I who coincidentally have the same schedule go to McDonalds every Monday night since all the restaurants are closed by this time, but why lie the transfatty goodness of Western McDonalds is amazing after eating Chinese food for the rest of the week. My Sino-U.S. Relations class is on Wednesday, thus being my only Wednesday class from 7:30-10:15 p.m.

My economy professor is a scholar gone businessman from the U.S. that was one of the first Americans granted admission into China in the late 1970's when China opened its foreign doors to the world. He also came over with our Dean of the The Beijing Center so it is always really fascinating to listen to them speak. This is especially true coming from a business stand point like Hawke who can relate after 30 years to American lifestyle v. Chinese lifestyle and culture because realistically I am only here for four months and that barely scratches the surface of looking at these differing viewpoints. The class is really interesting and it is unlike any other econ course I have taken before. We look at China's history compared to what was going in world history and how China contributed or lack of contributed to the rest of the world through the time periods. We then try to hypothesis the ingrained thought at the back of every Chinese persons' mind as to why with such a rich historical culture and innovation their was this great divulgence the Western world developed into these industrial nations and it took China almost another two centuries to begin to modernize.

This also corresponds to my Chinese political philosophy class which examines why the government in historical contexts has made the decisions it has made due in large part to the philosophical ideas of the country throughout its history. We talk a lot about Confucianism and Daoism, it is all very interesting and the professor is this cute little Chinese woman who has a PhD in philosophy. Finally, my Sino-U.S. relations class is similar accounts for all the 20th century occurrences of China- U.S. relations and what each interaction meant to the countries and where we stand today. My professor for that class is a Chinese man who is really hard to understand and is very opinionated. Dean Moses told my friend Maryanne that he is known throughout China for his dealing with this topic and is also a very big Communist party member...cool kinda.

Besides classes, I am just living a normal life. I know how to use basic phrases to get myself around the city and ordering food and what not. Every time I come home I feel really accomplished and proud of myself. Everything over here is really cheap, I spend maybe $10 a day on food for my three meals and if we go anywhere, which is typically by taxi, splitting the cab fair is individually under $1.

At night we are typical college students, we know where the bar district is and we go dancing a lot but always make sure we go to and from together so parents don't be worried. Last weekend we actually went to this techno club and heard the currently #1 in world Dj Paul van Dyk. It was awesome to say the least to just dance with glow sticks and wave our arms in the air to beat of the techno. Oh and the club floor had hydraulic floors aka soooo cool.

On Wednesdays since I don't have class until night time and two of my friends don't have class at all we try to do cultural events during the day to enhance our Beijing experience and make sure we see everything. If we don't go on Wednesdays we make another attempt with the rest of our crew on Satudays, but this is a new development so I don't really have much to mention yet.

The school has already taken us to tian'an men sqr and the drum and bell towers and plan on taking us throughout the semester to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall (it's way too cold to go right now), Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace.
Ok well my life is currently and continuously consumed with learning chinese characters so I should probably get back to that now before I embarrass myself in class again tomorrow (unlikely since this is a daily occurrence).

Peace and love Chinese style!