BeiDa Express

Now that I have been in China for four full weeks, the first two weeks (which, as they were happening, passed as a blur) are becoming all the more granulated as they seep into the sands of my time. There is much to be discussed, but I feel so overwhelmed with the details and anecdotes that I also feel any attempt at including all that should be included will be an inadequate attempt. So, I'll be more dilligent with my layers of thoughts and experiences.

Here was a typical schedule of my two weeks in Beijing.

(5:00--Jog around a park near Haidan Sports Complex; try to do some basic calisthenics using pull-up bars and parallel bars; brush-off stares from old women on non-electrical, outdoor ellipticals while I brush-off sweat accumulating at a pace on par with my sweatiest sauna experience--the dense air pollution in Beijing only exacerbates the fatiguing summer humidity and heat; try not to laugh as ping-pongers grunt and sing during morning training sessions without ping pong balls on the park's ping pong tables; consider the spiritual and physical benefits of those walking and performing tai chi clapping exercises; stretch, shower, bemoan the inescapable scent of backed-up sewage)


7:00--Wake C; get dressed for a day of classes and teaching; and leave the hotel for a jian bing (a street vendor produced breakfast crepe that costs US$0.50 and features egg, chili sauce, scallions, and garlic); grab a cup of coffee at a bakery--I only realize a week after ordering coffee without cream that I had been ordering coffee without breast milk; review Mandarin flash cards or finalize the details of the day's lesson plan.

Preparation E

The breeze shuffling the leaves of the thirty-year-old cotton wood beyond my parents' backyard soothe my listlessness and my anxieties. The listlessness and anxiety go hand-in-hand, I suppose.

I feel listless because of my awareness of the imminent excitement that will inundate my life: I am moving to China in less than a week.

In fact, one week from the moment when I am writing this will be a moment in which I am recovering from a day lost to air travel and a fourteen-hour-time-shift. My, how my back will ache and my lids will want to shut; but, oh how I will want to take pictures of the signs with aesthetically pleasing script and nonsensical translations.

More after the jump