How Did I End Up At the UN?

Welcome back... to what just might be the most solipsistic blog in the current blogosphere. As I reached Beijing this summer I started to think about my blog and what exactly I could add to it that would make it even remotely interesting and it dawned on me--this blog is entirely about me, does anyone really care? Mom and Dad, you don't count.

So here I am, continuing my blog dismissing those thoughts and wishing upon Betelgeuse that most of you might actually care about what my life has in store for me in China.

And we begin by taking you to a far away land, formerly known as the Orient, more commonly referred to as the People's Republic of China, more commonly referred to as China, and most commonly, given the number of Chinese people in the world, 中国.

I arrived a little over a week ago in the beautiful Beijing airport. With little to do I spent most of my time in my hotel room but managed to make it out and meet some old friends from last year. I met a friend at Hou Hai, the Riviera of Beijing if there ever was one, and quickly learned the West has been influencing China a great deal. I came across several homosexual people, and what looked like a communist attempt at a strip club (no I did not enter if you were wondering). After wandering about we had some dinner and I headed back to my hotel, this repeated for several days until it came time to move into my temporary home (shout out to Carrie Underwood).

ShouDu ShiFan DaXue, 首都师范大学, Capital Normal University is where I will be living for the next two months. It has two campuses, the first is a major attraction for taxi drivers, the second is a major attraction for foreigners and was never placed on the map that is currently being used for taxi drivers, or so it seems. I am living on the second campus. Though quaint, it has more than its share of interesting features. The gym is nice, my dorm is comparable to my dorms in Boston and it's proximity to everything in Beijing is far from convenient. But hey, I'm here to learn Chinese and as we all learned from my previous times in China getting lost is the best way to put homework into practice.

USC's group currently consists of 15 students either in Chinese III or Chinese V. I am proud to say I am a representative of the minority non-asian group. A whopping four of us stand proud, ready to prove though lacking in appearance, our language skills can often compete with those that fit in simply by appearance.

Class is going well, we are swamped with homework and are being forced to memorize about 150-200 characters per week--what a blast. With the repetition of characters over the next two months, it's safe to say I will lose all feeling in my hand while simultaneously becoming closer and closer to being fluent in this God-forsaken yet beautiful language.

Life is good in China, I can't complain. I miss family and friends but I'm making plenty of the latter and don't be surprise if I come home having started a new former (totally kidding). I think I'm truly in love with this facility though. There are kids from at least 20 different countries here, the majority being Korea. I've met a kid from Iraq, several from Russia, several from Italy and too many to count from China. My favorite part is that none of these kids speak English so we all have to converse in Chinese. Picture it, myself, and American, getting to know a college student from Iraq conversing in a language from an entirely different continent than either of us were born on. It's quite the sight and really fun.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to post but I'll work on that for the next one. We plan on traveling to Xi'An in a week or two and I'll definitely have pictures from that. The Great Wall is this weekend and several other small trips in Beijing.

I look forward to reading your comments.

再见！Ciao! Goodbye!

吴小龙