The past six days in China we have had great weather, with blue skies and decent temperatures, but we all watched in trepidation this morning as a giant haze of smog descended upon us and basically took over the whole city. Welcome to Beijing, the only city where the response to the question "Do you smoke?" is "Only when I'm breathing."
We are currently in the process of gathering materials to DIY our own air filters for our rooms, and our student development office has handed out masks for everyone to wear when we walk outside, so don't worry, with a some precautions I think we will survive the airpocalypse this week. I do miss the blue skies though...
In other news, I have almost finished my first full week of classes here at TBC. Each class is only once a week, but for three hours at a time (except Chinese which is every day). I am going to have an incredible attention span by the time I get home. I met with a professor to discuss my research project today, so I am gearing up to start part two of my research and hopefully see some Chinese schools. Here are some pictures of our study spaces:
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| The Library, complete with good qi |
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| The main hallway has its own terra cotta warrior replica |
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| The "Hall of Harmonious Encounters" |
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| More feng shui going on in the library |
Ordering food continues to be an adventure, but I am getting much better with chopsticks, and I have had some really tasty dumplings and noodles since coming here. Authentic Chinese food is definitely different than American take-out; mostly it is a lot more spicy! I'll be sure to document anything particularly strange that I may sample while I'm here.
And so my Chinese life is moving along. Soon, I think a lot of the things that seem strange to me are going to appear just ordinary parts of everyday life, and I won't even look twice at that random fish drying outside of a restaurant on a clothes hanger. I'll be sure to let you know when that happens. For now, enjoy this fantastic English translation:
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| The bathtub did what now? |
