Living the life in the 'jing

How are things at school you may ask?

Getting better every day. Literally. Every day something new happens; I meet a colleague, my students amaze me with something; I get invited to judge fun contests.

My students hard at work… and play.

 

Or like last week. When I was asked by my lovely colleague Chao to come to the rehearsal for the singing competition I stopped in my tracks. “There’s a singing competition??” “yes, between departments. The foreign language department is asking you to join us. You’ll be our lucky break.” “How so…” “It’s a competition of Chinese communist songs and you’ll be the only foreigner in it! We will be so special!”.

And so I attempted to learn a Chinese communist song by heart, failing of course, but I did learn the melody and hummed along during the contest. Sadly, even with my voice and face to the mix, we didn’t win. But it did invoke a whole lot of collectivism. Now the staff knows who I am and want me to be more involved. I even got invited to the wechat group! That’s a huge step for me! Granted it’s all in Chinese but still…. And a few professors have shyly approached me, asking for some training and some help with their classes. Soft diplomacy at its best! WE have even been joking how me singing in this choir is the best US-China relations we have right now! Apparently to create peace, all you need to do is sing a little bit.

Before the competition. Did I mention we had matching outfits??

What else have I been up to? Exercising in Beijing for sure. When the pollution isn’t too terrible, I try to run to various places in my neighborhood of Fengtai. I’ve started to just accept the constant stares. Yes, I’m wearing purple spandex. Yes I am the only person running. No I’m not Chinese. But it’s been ok. I enjoy running in the cold. And it’s very cold! I’m also trying out the Triathlon club swim practice here in the ‘Jing. We get to practice in the most amazing Olympic sized pool. And on Sundays, it ‘s all ours. The coach was impressed with my form (thanks Bklyn coaches!!) and thinks I am quite good.

I made it to Ikea!

This pool is amazing.

Finally, I am doing things the Beijing way. I recently went to the flower market, a wholesale warehouse in Beijing. It has everything- orchids, trees, tulips, bouquets, soil, not to mention fish, turtles, bunnies, parakeets, you name it. And super cheap. I also had my first baijiu banquet experience. Granted it was with westerners but it still counts! And the Chinese group at the table next to us joined in! In case you don’t know, baijiu is a super strong grain alcohol in China, used for toasts on special occasions. It’s not like America where there is one toast and it’s over. Everyone toasts everyone. Constantly. Over and over again. Throughout the entire dinner. Fortunately, the glasses are super small. But man, did that destroy me!

Flowers!

Baijiu glass!

And that’s about it for now. Have lots of teacher trainings in the next month so get ready for some more posts!