Rain

Yesterday it rained for the first time in Beijing in approximately three months. I hate the rain, but it was okay because I didn’t have any classes, so I didn’t really have to spend a lot of time outside.

We are really lucky that we live on the fourth floor of Shaoyuan. Some of the other students on our program who live on the fifth floor had to move their rooms because the ceiling started to leak on the top floor of Shaoyuan House.

The rain was refreshing because it really cleared up a lot of the smog. Yesterday, when my friend Charlie who had studied abroad in Beijing two semesters ago and participated in the same program, came to visit, he said that on a clear day you could see the mountains where the Great Wall is from Shaoyuan. Sure enough, when we woke up this morning, we could see the mountains outside our window. It was amazing to me how on the outskirts of such a booming city there could be such huge mountains that seemed to have magically appeared out of no where.

I’m really happy that it’s Friday. Because this week was the first full week of classes, it was really tiring. I actually have a lot more work this semester than I anticipated. Chinese is moving at such a quick pace that I really have to study and work at it in order to keep up. My two independent studies also require a lot of attention. I already wrote a ten page literature review for my Chinese Media and Society study after being in classes for only a week. At least I am enjoying the material and applying it to my daily life living in China.

Tonight we went out for Peking duck. I was really excited to try it because it is supposedly the quintessential Beijing dining experience and was by far one of the most interesting dinners I think we have had in Beijing yet. First, they bring out the entire duck to show you and then they bring it back into the kitchen to cut it up. First they bring out a tray of the skin and then they serve the equivalent of the white meat on the duck. When you eat Peking duck, you are supposed to eat it in wraps with lettuce, onions, celery, and sauces… almost like a duck burrito, which was actually very good! Then, they brought out the duck head, split in half. The boys fought over who was going to get to eat the brains. After the meat is done, they served us a duck soup that had been made while we were eating the meat of the duck. It was really delicious!

On our walk to Wodaoku for dinner, I noticed that my attempt to escape Valentine’s Day in China was an “epic fail” (a term that my group of friends has commonly begun using in Beijing). Where there used to be fireworks stands for Chinese New Year, there were shops set up selling all different kinds of flowers for the big day. Not only did the Chinese men buy their girlfriends flowers, but they carried the huge bouquets of roses for them. My friends Molly, and Cara, and I have decided that we are going to buy each other flowers tomorrow and go out for a girls’ night out on the town in Beijing. Tomorrow morning, we are also going to visit the 798 Art Village in Beijing, which should be a lot of fun!