1st and 2nd days in Beijing

Apartments like mine

This blog is about my trip to China and my experiences there. It is a very detailed blog- it is more of a daily diary. So if this is too detailed for you, and you find it boring or hard to keep up, that's no problem at all! I only really expect my parents to stick around, anyway. So, now that they're gone, here's the story about my first 2 hectic days in Beijing. The trip from Amsterdam to Beijing was quite uneventful, say about as uneventful as you would hope a flight to be. However, on the plane was the first appartments  time I got the feeling: What if I... don't like it? You see, the thought had never quite come into my head. Not whilst I was worrying whether I should have taken this year off studying. Not whilst dad & mum told me it was okay to come back if I wanted to ('no pressure'). I agreed on that, but never thought it through. It didn't really help that the 'airport pick-up', as it said braggingly on the website, didn't go as smooth as I hoped for. Waiting 4 hours on a subway station is not my ideal way to spend my first evening in a world city, although you make friends with people quickly if they are stuck there with you. In fact, up until 3 hours after we sat down there, it was extremely funny, including going 'upstairs' into the city that is Beijing to get us some unknown food. Walking around in the metro (up and down stairs) with all my luggage was also not an experience I would want to repeat. And then the flat I now live in was empty when I came in, and it had only a small closet, bed and bureau.

Room!

The walls were plain white except for the places where they were stained grey. Admittedly there was air conditioning, which really is quite awesome since it's HOT here. Anyway, once my roomies arrived I cooled down a bit, since I was really starting to wonder how fast the first plane back would be. With one of them (a girl who is Chinese originally but doesn't speak the language and lives in Belgium, and possesses a wonderfully complete Belgian accent in Dutch, let's call her O. for the sake of it) we  walked around a bit and bought some noodles, which we ate together. Later I managed to get some facebook on my computer, and then I went to sleep on the hardest bed I've ever slept in in my entire life. Just to make it tangible to the reader: Find a wooden plank. Now place some kind of cloth over it- not too thick, carpets don't count! And voilà, there's your Chinese-style bed (see pic).


Next day I registered at a police office. The person who usually registers outsiders (sometimes referred to as aliens. I believe Chinese have found Google translate and they use it to its full measure) wasn't there, so someone new had to figure out where the hell I come from and what my name was. So now I have a living permit that says my name is Sophie (given name) Clara (surname). I kid you not. The rest is Chinese, so I can't even figure out how many more mistakes there are there. I don't think I want to know, really. Walking around alone is a whole thing on itself. I advise aspirant movie stars from the West who don't manage to become famous to go and live in some random place in China. For anyone who is like me, the experience is extremely distressing. Gaping stares are common and people don't even try to pretend they are looking at that tree behind you. You are scrutinised anywhere you go, and if you walk into a little shop it's basically local news. 

Me and O. at the bar in the Hutong

It's more fun to be in a group, and my roomies are quite cool. In fact, the U. school I go to seems to have a community of half-Chinese speaking people from all around the globe who seem to speak an average of 4 languages (apart from Chinese), and who are all weird in a good way, away from all their friends and fun-loving. They get together every night somewhere  to hold the belief that a stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet. My other roomies except for O. are Polish and German. Fun fact: English accents of those two countries are identical. We met up with other people from Germany, Korea (but living in Spain), Mexican (but living in Switzerland), Japanese (but living in the U.S.A.)... first to have a drink in a Hutong (the older, smaller parts of  are referred to in this way), on a cute little place on a roof full of aliens. Aliens are pretty awesome, since many aliens-> no staring. Afterwards we ate at a Chinese restaurant with a group of 13 people. The meal cost each one of us about 25yen, so ±€2,50. There was a lot of spicy stuff, a lot of undefined meat, a lot of weird vegetables and a  of rice. 

Chinese food

It was rather good, and it was lots of fun- people just chose some food from plates that looked good. There was no questioning your ability with chopsticks. If you want food, you use them. In fact, it's not hard really, except for when dealing with rice that fell apart. Afterwards someone randomly decided to go watch a movie, so we did, and I suddenly found myself in the centre of Beijing, where the big buildings and modern, expensive western shops are. Overall, the second day of my stay in Beijing was very cool, and certainly a lot better than my first day. 

Oh my, you made it all the way to the end of the post? Congratulations! Good night for now! Greetings from Beijing.