Classes & Internships Begin

Classes and internships are underway here in Beijing, and we international students are starting to fall into the daily routine. Tuesday morning I had my first Chinese class (Beginner - 2), and Chinese Art & Culture that night. Chinese class is a brutal 3 hours and 20 minutes, 3 days a week, but I feel like I'll learn a lot. In class I kept thinking 'oh man, that phrase would have been extremely useful when I was in [insert awkward situation here] the other day.'

This morning I started my internship. I'm working for a company called IDC (which I believe is Boston-based), that specializes in something like IT market research. I don't think they were ready for me. I was supposed to report to work at 9am, so just because it was the first day, I came into the office around 8:45. There was no one there. I came back at 9, and there was one person there. I pretended to check my e-mail on the not-functioning WiFi for 45 minutes until my boss showed up. We couldn't find an open desk or computer for me, so he sat me down at a table, connected my laptop to the internet, and said he'd come back in a half hour. An hour later, he came back, we talked for a half hour, and then he told me I was free to go. It was, maybe, the best work day ever.

I'm currently sitting in a cafe nearby, in the large Maoist square called Xidan. I just made one of the more ironic discoveries of my life, when I found the giant Arsenal team store right next door to our office. For those who don't know, Arsenal is the English soccer team that I've become obsessed with over the last couple of years. Unfortunately, the prices inside the store more closely mirrored those of the team store in England than the prices of items in the Beijing Silk Market, but it was fun to browse and speak in broken Mandarin nonetheless.

On Monday night I tried sushi for the first time. I was told after the fact that eating sushi in Beijing (or China in general) is not always a good idea. We went to a small, underground place in the nearest entertainment district, Wudoukou, and my friend Emily and I succumbed to peer pressure and ordered some tuna and cucumber sushi. Although I put on a brave face at the time, I thought it was gross. I kept thinking, 'this tastes like a marina smells.' Emily did not hide her displeasure, and spit out a good deal of the sushi. She's from Wisconsin, which made it even more hilarious (for those of you from Cincinnati, imagine my old impression of Mrs. Humke).

Yesterday, our Chinese professor took our class (6 students) to lunch at a small campus restaurant known affectionately as "the Medicine House." The restaurant consists of just two small rooms and a kitchen, but we had my favorite Chinese meal yet; a series of delicious meats and veggies came out (PF Chang's style, I'll say) and were shared by the group. My professor, "Linda", made fun of me for putting a napkin on my lap, which is apparently not kosher here.

Last night, Michael, Elizabeth, Sandy, Morgan and I had our biggest American cop-out yet. We chose to eat dinner across the street from our campus at a fine establishment called Big Pizza. We were treated to a buffet of American treats, including tater tots, cornballs, brownies, and, of course, big pizzas. I'm not sure I've ever seen my friend Elizabeth so happy. She hadn't been satisfied by anything, she claimed, since 'that sleeve of Ritz she ate at the museum.' We vowed to establish a once-weekly gathering at the now-famous Big Pizza, and plan to invite select individuals that we deem worthy of such an awe-inspiring mecca of western food.

Mysteriously, I've developed a sleep pattern here that is the opposite of at home; I am wide awake at about 7am each morning, and feel like I'm going to die around 10pm each night. Hopefully this weekend I can 'man up' when we go out for Michael's 21st birthday.