The White Rabbit.

It's almost been a few weeks now since I arrived in Beijing and I'm slowly adjusting to the way of life here, learning as I go along. It's been a real struggle just doing my shopping and banking without knowing any Mandarin. It's sometimes frusterating when my English and sign language isn't enough to get what I want. I got really annoyed at the supermarket the other day because I had to leave behind my eggs, pears, and apples at the cash register. I understood later that I had to weigh them myself, print off a barcode and stick them on the bag beforehand. I wanted to go back into the supermarket to get my eggs and fruits and do it right the second time around, but I was denied entry for some reason (they have security guards standing at entrance ways everywhere here) so I shot him a dirty look and huffed and puffed my way back to my apartment... ^&!%@*&!^%*&^@%*&@^% GRRRR!!!!

I picked up an elementary book on learning basic conversational Chinese with audio cassettes to listen to the phonetics and pronunciations of this tone-based language. Life will be much easier once I start speaking and understanding Mandarin.



My first impressions of Beijing was that it was very polluted, dirty, and primitive. The smog here is so bad that it's equivalent to smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day. The air smell like the freeons and ions you would smell in an air-conditioned room. It's hard to describe, of course, but it's potent, and it's everywhere. Traffic is a mess too. A clash of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists cross each other's path and NO ONE follows the lights in intersections. When it's "safe to go" they go, or budge their way in. Drivers seem to have the right of way here, not pedestrians. It's always a game of chicken when crossing the roads, and I had to get used to this quickly.



I don't have net access in my apartment just yet, so I've been frequenting cafes leeching off it's WiFi and sitting here for hours on end.

I went out with a group of around ten foreigners, most of whom were Germans, for a night of karaoke last night. It was a blast! Though the menus on the computer for selecting songs were difficult to understand because they were all in Chinese, we managed to search songs by song titles (just not by artists) and combed through it, covering everything from Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" to the Carpenter's "Goodbye to Love". Many of the videos, especially the generic ones of couples in love frolicking through the fields of green, were ridiculously hilarious. Even more hilarious were the numerous spelling errors in the lyrics as the song played on. Could you say "Engrish"?



In addition to tutoring two Korean girls privately, I got a job at the Sinoland Language and Culture Co. today as an English teacher! I went in for my orientation today and was introduced to my new co-workers in the teachers lounge. They were very cordial, friendly, and seemed very interested in my background. I think they were just happy to have a Canadian working amongst them. =) The language school is on the 20th floor of a sparkling new glass building, with classrooms overlooking the busy streets of Beijing.

It's been quite an adventure here so far, chasing after the white rabbit down the rabbit hole. More updates and pictures to come!