The First 2 Weeks

These first two weeks in Beijing have been totally amazing – with barely any time to update this blog! Even though we have only been learning Chinese for two weeks, the lessons that we’ve had have been very useful and applicable to everyday life, making the learning of a new language easier. Though the language barrier definitely hinders communication, there is a joy of being able to eventually communicate a message, using limited vocabulary in conjunction with hand signals. The laundry lady still thinks I’m Cantonese and continues to speak to me in Mandarin, and write in Chinese characters. I’m really sad that the lessons are ending, and though I am excited about the research, I wish the language classes would last the duration of the trip so I could also learn to read. Most of the culture classes, usually given by Dr. Lee’s graduate students have been really interesting, my favorite being the one about rural to urban migration in China because it helped me get to know my surroundings better.


It was also nice to be able to do sightseeing while here – the pictures posted online by Dr. Coppola and Spencer pretty much tell it all. This program has been totally amazing in making sure that we hit all the important cultural and tourist places in China, and more. We tried many foods, such as Peking Duck, Dim Sum, Dumplings, and hot pot. We also took tours of the Hutong in traditional 3-wheeled vehicles powered by a man on a bike, and rode a traditional wooden boat to get from the Summer Palace to the stone boat. Being the small world that it is, while we were at the Temple of Heaven on Sunday, I turned around and thought I recognized one of my friends from the University of Rochester. He was staring back at me and we looked at each other in disbelief and went, “Why are you here?” He was in Beijing for a few days for a conference, and we had just never exchanged plans before we left, so I was totally in awe that with so many people in the world and so many places in Beijing, I would end up running into someone I knew while I was abroad.


After that first night, when Donna and I managed to blow out the power in our room by attempting to use two adapters so that we could plug in our extension cord, settling in to life in Beijing has been pretty enjoyable. China seems laden with infinite varieties of outlet shapes; in our room alone, there are 4 different types, and just because the adapter may change the shape of a plug so that an American appliance can be plugged in, we learned that even that may not work due to voltage differences (which we already knew about it, but the extension cord we were trying to use was unlabeled). We then had our fiasco with not having hot water, where the fuse was apparently also broken, maybe or maybe not due to our attempts to get hot water, which prompted our move to another room. Now, we are in a third room, in the adjacent building, where luckily, we have a western-style bathroom and a nice induction stovetop, though noticeably a microwave is missing. Readily cooked food is so cheap and available though, that cooking may not actually be necessary.


For future participants of this program, the Bank of Beijing at the intersection next to the chemistry building is the best place, and the only place that I currently know, that can exchange U.S. currency in cash or traveler’s check to Chinese rmb. I think there’s no transaction fee for cash, but a $1.50 transaction fee for traveler’s check, but this has solely been from experience, since I wasn’t able to ask that in Chinese. With a passport and 20 minutes, they make the exchange relatively hassle-free, though possibly not as convenient as an ATM. I managed to walk into 3 of the 4 banks in the road along Wanliu Middle Road, being told to go to the Bank of China, and then once I got there, was told that that particular location of the Bank of China could not exchange U.S. currency.


I have really enjoyed my stay in Beijing so far, and there is a part of me that relishes in being mistaken for a local…until I open my mouth for multi-word conversations.