Last Sunday I spent my best day in Beijing yet with Fei. I know her from the University of Cincinnati where we both attended graduate school. She’s living in Beijing now, and it was great to wander around the 798 Art District with a local.
Sundays
Month: September 2016
Failing and Nailing
On Wednesday, I had a language practicum which involved going to a restaurant with my teacher and asking for a menu, ordering a meal without, meat, gluten, soy or msg, ordering a beverage and getting the check. All good skills! But I nearly cried when she said I had to ask a stranger for directions. Speaking in Mandarin, I asked a man who was repairing a street light where the restaurant was, but he didn’t understand me. My teacher was standing next to me and telling me what to say. It was all very awkward. I didn’t know what the man was saying to me and didn’t know what I was supposed to do next. Then a student walked by (we’re on a college campus) and said in English “It’s that way.” Kind of hilarious. The rest of our excursion was fine. That’s language boot camp, no big deal.
And trying things…
Relaxing at the Summer Palace
So it’s not all work here. We go on excursions too. After our first exam we had hot pot for lunch. Then we went to the Summer Palace which is located within a huge park in Beijing.
Fortune Favors the Full
(while in Ohio before starting on this trip I had a final-for-now lunch with coworkers, this was my fortune)
Hello Beijing!
I landed in Beijing two weeks ago and so far my favorite thing about Beijing is the subway. It’s so easy to use, even for those of us who don’t speak the language yet, and it allows me to freely explore this huge city.
I’ll be in Beijing until mid-December. As part of the Fulbright grant I received a Critical Language Enhancement Award which is 3-1/2 months of intensive language study in Beijing prior to beginning my research grant in Jingdezhen, China. Basically, I’m in Beijing for language boot camp. I’m here with 20 other students at a program called CET. It’s based in Washington DC but has language programs in many different countries. The students in the program with me this term are undergrads wanting to improve their Mandarin.
Ohio Rides
Motorbike nerds sometimes share “ride reports”, basically excuses to recount the details of your ride and post mediocre pictures of interesting places (ok maybe that’s just me). I expect to be writing these with some regularity, so if you find this boring you might just want to skip over future “ride report” categories. This post is a combination of three rides I took recently while hanging out in Cincinnati, Ohio. One followed the Ohio River to the east, one towards the rural heart of Ohio and one south into Kentucky.
Beginnings
Perhaps it’s in our blood, maybe it’s just in our history, but surely it’s in the American vein to head out for some other place when home becomes intolerable, or merely even when the distant side of the beyond seems a lure we can’t resist.
William Least Heat-Moon, blue highways
I’ve been idling before the start of this journey, spending the past month with family before embarking. A couple of days ago I picked my departure date: I’m wheels down this Friday, heading a couple of states away to Illinois to visit friends there. I’ll be riding for the next several months with only whatever fits on my scooter, working during the week (I work remotely) and slowly heading out to San Diego, where I’ll turn around and head back. That’s the entirety of my plan.
I am not an adventurous person. I have never done more than an overnight trip on a motorbike. I am a cautious, quiet introvert. Even though I’ve been considering the idea of this trip for nearly a year, once the date was set I spent the past couple of nights tossing and turning; this seems a poor idea. I look at books on my parents’ shelves and think, “those would be nice to read!” I watch the midewest’s slow turn from summer to fall and think, “I love this time of year!”
But opportunities like this are rare. And it’s nowhere near as crazy as, say, moving to China for over a year.
See you on the road.
Greetings!
What happens when an artist wins a prestigious grant to work in China for a year and her husband hops on scooter to mosey around America? The voice of the other; a cheerful, warming greeting comes from the phone across thousands of miles and local times separated by half a day.
“Good morning!”
“Good evening!”
And they decide to try a blog.