First Week in Beijing
I arrived in Beijing only a week ago, but that day is a blur (as were the next three to four days). After nearly twenty-four hours of travel time (including a layover in Toronto and a thirteen hour flight crammed in the middle seat of an Air Canada), I arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport, Terminal 3, running on maybe a few microsleeps I got on the plane. I vaguely remember shambling through immigration, taking the metro to baggage claim, and fighting for a spot on the elevator that would take me down to the taxi station. Only one more short trip before I could sleep!
...Is what I thought at the time. I didn't even care that I was being overcharged for my ride -- a knowledgeable and disappointed Frenchman informed me that I was probably paying double what a metered taxi would have charged for the trip to my hutong as he shook his head at my naivety -- but I was too tired to be perturbed by anything, including the knowledge that I'd been in Beijing for maybe an hour and had already been duped. That changed as soon as that taxi pulled onto the highway. Nothing will wake a person up like a trip down the interstate in a Chinese taxi. I swear they have invisible force fields surrounding them that push other vehicles out of the way when they decide - suddenly and for no apparent reason other than possibly to see the terrified look on the faces of their inexperienced foreign passengers in the rear-view mirror - to move into the left lane when there is very clearly a giant truck there! But we made it alive, having squeezed down the narrow alleyway (called a hutong) to rest, finally, outside the entrance of the cozy apartment where I would be staying for the next twelve weeks. There, I met with Lina, my very kind and helpful landlord, who did not speak much English, but was very patient with my attempts to communicate in limited and broken Mandarin. She showed me around, gave me a key, and left. Twenty minutes later, at 7:30pm Beijing time, I was passed out.
It took me at least three more days to get used to the time change. In that time, I managed to make a few trips outside and to the nearby Wumart to grab some essentials (food), but most of the time I spent trying to force myself to stay awake during the day, ending up falling asleep at random times anyway. By the time Delia arrived on Friday, I was entrained for the most part and excited to start exploring the city! The following day, we visited the Forbidden City, which was enormous and beautiful (I will post pictures later this week!), and while we were there, who do we run into -- out of the millions of people in Beijing -- but another American law student in Beijing for her summer internship! Shandice is a rising 2L at Notre Dame who had been on her own all week. The three of us spent the day exploring the palace grounds, followed by a trip to Jingshan Park, and a trek to find a Wal Mart that resulted in us getting lost downtown for a couple of hours. We decided to take the subway from there. The Beijing subway system, in my opinion, is fantastic - easy to navigate, clean, safe, efficient. It's crowded much of the time, but I thought it would be a lot worse. It's crowded everywhere in this city, which I thought I would mind, but I'm actually already used to it!
The people here are wonderful and kind. Even if they don't speak English, they are patient and try to help you understand. I have not had a single negative encounter, and everyone I have approached with a question has done their very best to assist me.
There is so much more I could talk about already - today was my first day of work at Zhicheng's Beijing Children's Legal Aid and Research Center, for example, and I can already tell I'm going to like it! Stay tuned... I'll post all about it after my first full week!