The Wandering Monkey

Hello Folks-

I am in my second day in Beijing.  I have a very nice apartment that my friend is letting me stay at. There is a pool and a workout gym in the basement.  Yesterday we went to the Summer Palace, which is an enourmous park and bridge and palace combination.  It took about an hour to walk around the entire circle.  It was quite interesting.  Apparently, this massive lake there was not natural.  It was dug because the emperor wanted a lotus pond.  I cant imagine digging the whole thing by hand, but I guess you can say that is the power of many hands at work, yes?

 

Beijing has proved not to be the friendliest place.  My initial impression is not a winner.  The taxi driver I first dealt with first could not understand the street name I was saying to him.  Possibly an honest miscomunication.  Then, once he figured it out, he looked over at me and said, 50 kuai (a slang term for RMB, like saying 'bucks' for American currency.)  I knew the place was very closeby, and at most if he used the meter it would be 15rmb.  So, I told him to *&^& you and got out and slammed the door.  After that the other drivers didn't want to work with me, so I had to walk around the block to find a new taxi group. 

 

After this, I did find Jouni, my friend, and he's been good so far.  Very nice, and he will let me stay in his place indefinitely.  He said another friend of his stayed there a week and a half, so that's my schedule. 

 

Beijing is filled with foreigners.  I could especially feel it after beijing in Nanjing where there were almost none.  It's a bit dissapointing to see so many foreigners.  It's like bejing in New York or something.  Plus, the people here look younger, somehow, than the foreigners in Shanghai.  I think there are a lot of college kids out here.

 

Last night I met up with a friend of mine from the Beijing swing dance group.  He brought with him his cousin and a friend of his, both 18.  I could not help but feel old.  I'm 19 years older than them, and they are 18 years old!!  We had a nice dinner, though, then went out to see the bar streets in Beijing.  They are OK, but again filled with so many young foreigners.  I did find a nice shop selling canes and walkers, though, so it was not a total loss.  I turned in a bit early, having just arrived that day on the sleeper train, gone swimming, seen the summer palace, then dinner and a night out.  I was a bit tuckered out by midnight, because, as you can see on the list of activites, I did not take my afternoon nap... That will get to the old folks like me...

 

The good news is that everyone in China thinks I am in my 20's.  Apparently, I am outwardly well preserved.  Thats'a'nice.

 

Today I got up and went to the internet cafe, were I am now.  I am not 'feeling' beijing.  If I get the job offer, I will stay here, but otherwise I'm not going to spend too much more time here.  The good news is that I found a good 'next' place to go.  Dailan, which is near the Korean border.  It has a beach, there are not too many foreigners, and the people there speak standard Mandarin (not a local dialext or heavily accented version of the lanaguge.)  I found I liked being in places without a massive amount of foreigners.  If I wanted to be in such a place, I'd go back to Shanghai, where I know people and places and can get along a little easier.

 

On to the long term plans.  I am thinking now, more and more, that if this current job offer does not take place or is not good enough, it is almost definitely a return to America after about 30 days from now.  I am going to think on it, but this return would almost surely be without a plan to return to Shanghai.  There's just not any great opportunities here.  Granted, it is more fun, but lacking the swing group responsibility and any other sort of real job, I think its time to move on.

 

I am outlining a book right now on my Shanghai Swing adventures.  Yesterday I met a woman who works at a publishing house.  They only publish in China, but it could prove useful.  Who knows?  The tricky part now is actually writing it, completing it.  I'm going to make is short in length so that I have some hope of getting it to the end.

 

All for now,

-J