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Published: March 25th 2006
Hi all!
So for starters, I'm getting internet back in my appartment in a week, so I can probably safely say that I'll be updating more frequently. For now I can just use my host dad's office and the english department every once in a while.
It's been so long since I've given an actual update that I don't even know where to start.
Yesterday I met up with some German exchange kids who Lilia and I met randomly when we were biking home one day. We were stopped at a traffic light, and this white girl came up to us and asked if we were exchange students. I got really excited because I could see she was wearing a uniform, too. Apparantly she's part of this group who's actually staying for the entire year, and has already been here 8 months. We were happy to meet english speakers our age from outside of our group, so we exchanged cell numbers. It's crazy how you can meet people here on the sole basis of what race you are.
Since I last updated, I've hit at least a few major sites worth mentioning. The Temple of Heaven was pretty amazing. I had two pictures taken of me on the basis of my whiteness/blondeness, which was kind of fun. Our group took a field trip to the CCTV tower, which kind of resembles the space needle in Seattle. The view was, for lack of a better word, amazing. I've known all along what a huge city Beijing really is, but actually seeing it was pretty astounding. You could see the construction, the hutongs, the pollution, and everything else from up there, and it was pretty incredible. It's crazy to think that I'm a part of all of it right now, at least for the time being.
I've also gone to a lot of hutongs. Hutong is a word meaning "small alley," and it refers to the many tiny streets scattered throughout Beijing, where there are old, rundown little one room buildings, and schools, and shops. They're being torn down in drastic amounts, because the city is expanding like crazy, and also because of the upcoming olympics. Apparantly the government wants to tear some of them down to replace them with more idealistic looking hutongs, to give a better impression of the city to foreigners. It's kind of sad to think that in a few years they're almost all going to be gone. Walking or biking down them is one of the best ways to get a taste of city life. Another cool thing about the hutongs is that they somehow block out the sounds from the city-- once you go a couple of blocks in, you can no longer hear cars or anything else. It's really quiet and peaceful. There are always people are always out, walking around. Sometimes I feel like an intruder because really I'm walking into these people's home. At one point I was wondering why there were so many public bathrooms in the hutongs-- it's not like that many tourists come through any given area. Then the real reason hit me, and it seemed so obvious. The people don't have bathrooms in their houses; these are the ones that they have to use. There are signs spray-painted all over many hutong buildings in red that apparantly mean "to be torn down." So I'm literally witnessing these things that are about to dissapear.
One more thing worth mentioning is that my group has started helping english classes in the elementary school building at Jing Shan. It's really fun, when we actually get to do things, that is. Sometimes we just sit and observe. The kids are pretty cute, there. They love meeting foreigners, and are really eager to talk to us. Their english is really good. Way better than my Chinese. It's really impressive.
That's about it for now. Hopefully you'll be hearing more from me soon.
-Jill
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Katy
non-member comment
Yay!
Good update! You should tell about the pool sometime. I'm excited for you to hear from colleges soon, although I always feel guilty bringing that up. Have a great day!