The Wandering Monkey

Folks-
This is my first blog post from my apartment in Beijing.  It was a long struggle to get the right place, and right now I am only halfway set up here.  My ADSL is working, however, so I thought I would use my Sunday afternoon to send out an update.

First thing: last week was Mid-Autumn festival.  The entire country takes a week off and goes home or goes on vacation.  Of course, some people must work to run the trains and the restaurants.  But most offices are closed and business grinds to a halt.  My old Shanghai Love Interest came up to Beijing to visit me this week.  It was a bit of a strain, because I still have not made the house ready to receive visitors.  I didn't have curtains or sheets, for instance.  The first day was going shopping to Wal-Mart and local shopping places to get basic necessities.  Not the most exciting way to spend your vacation, but she was a trooper about it and didn't put up too much fuss.  We spent a few days together and it was very nice.  It was good to have a sense of 'continuity'.

Since leaving Shanghai, I have left so much of what I had been building for the past three years.  The swing communy, my local area knowledge, and my network of friends.  All I take with me to Beijing is my knowledge of China in general and my Mandarin (which is improving but still not great).  Spending the month up here living out of a hotel and not having the money to get an apartment was a major drag.  I was getting extremely fatigued day by day, and I could not do too much to relax.

Fortunately, that span is over.  I told myself, 'Once this time is over and you have found an apartment, you'll completely forget about this short time you were living in a hotel.'  It's not true.  I remember the hotel life quite well, and it's not for me.  I don't think I could be a travel-all-the-time type of person, like some salespeople.  I don't like it.

Job is going fairly well.  We are still mainly training and working out our group dynamics.  We're going to be hiring many new people for our group, and we're going through the selection process right now.

My apartment has a decent size, and a decent view.  There is a 'guard' at the door and elevator attendants in each elevator.  The 'guard' is a apparently just out of high-school girl in a guard uniform, thus the use of 'guard' instead of GUARD.  But it's still reassuring that someone is around to keep watch of things.  The complex itself is quite nice, with lots of green grass between buildings and trees.  It's not cheap, but it's much better than some of the places I looked at for the price.

Everything social in Beijing is far, far away from where I live.  The existing swing dance community here is all the way across the city.  It takes about one hour in a taxi (one way) to get there at 7pm.  That's mostly because of the traffic, but even on a Sunday afternoon it takes 40 minutes.  It's just not a fast city in which to travel.  If I take the subway/metro system, it takes over an hour to arrive.  It's much cheaper, though.  Any method of travel to the swing dance night is a little tiring.  On a Monday evening at 7pm after work I am usually not up for a one hour commute for a leisure activity.  Add to this, of course, another one hour trip back.  I just haven't been going.

I have felt this is a good time to start developing some interests outside of swing dancing.  I really did it, that swing dance thing.  Relaxationally, I have considered Yoga, for the health and mind benefits.  I have also considered Salsa dancing, but sometimes I wonder if that will be good or not.  Salsa does have the advantage of having MANY places you can go dance.  Plus, it would a social, athletic, and a good way to practice Chinese.  But it's another dance form, so maybe I could make it just a light hobby.

On the more serious hobby/activity areas, I am considering writing and some sort of movie making.  Like being a filmmaker, director, that sort of thing.  It's long been an ambition and interest of mine, and with some modicum of success previously, I would find an easier go of it than someone who had no experience at all.

For the remainder of the month, I still consider myself moving into my apartment.  I'm getting a couch delivered on Wednesday.  Today I'm going out to order curtains.  Very domestic stuff.  But I like it.  I have been without a home of my own for so long.  I like being able to set up my own space.

Well, all for now.  Healthy and gradually more happy in Beijing.
Peace,
-J