Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Arrival

At one point during the 12-hour flight to Beijing, the flight attendant took my temperature.

She did so as if I were a barcode placed on a product. A scanner, in the shape of a gun, was pointed at my head. Half a second later my temperature was read, and the flight attendant moved on.

Routine checks like this might be the norm now that I’m in China. Because of swine flu, the government seems to be taking strict measures to prevent any breakouts. My university has done the same, taking temperatures at a building entrance, and even postponing a dinner to welcome new foreign students.

“All the students should measure temperature yourselves every morning,” reads a note the school left in my dorm. “Try to avoid parties with other people…” it adds.

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I have to say, since arriving in Beijing, I’ve felt a bit out of a place.

For one thing, I’m living in a dorm at the school I’m attending. A bit of a downgrade from my living conditions when I was a teacher in Xi’an. Back then I had an apartment all by myself. Now I’m living in a dorm smaller than the bedroom I once had. There’s no refrigerator, no private bathroom, and the Internet access runs like a dial-up modem.

But one thing I like is that I have a roommate. He’s from South Korea and his name is John. Thankfully, he speaks English and Chinese.

“This place is kind of miserable,” my roommate said of the dorm. We both laughed.

Though its maybe a bit cramped, I’m sure me and him we’ll get along fine. But it is strange having a roommate who’s six years younger than you. “Yeah, I’m 25. Pretty old,” I admitted to him. I suspect many of the other foreign students here are near John’s age as well.

It’s also different being among so many foreigners now. The school I’m attending is called Tsinghua University, and it boasts more than 35,000 students altogether. Last year, the school had 2,400 international students attend the university, and their presence is clearly visible on the campus.

Except for my roommate, I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting any of the other international students yet. But for much of the day I’ve only heard Korean and Vietnamese being spoken in my dorm hallway.

I start school on the 22nd. In the meantime I’ll be busy getting adjusted to the place, as well as registering with the school. But some things about China don’t change no matter where you go: blogspot, youtube and now even facebook are blocked from the Internet. (Guess I won’t be facebook friending anyone too soon.)

One other thing I’ve noticed is the weather: Beijing hasn’t been too cloudy so far. The skies are blue, the sun is out, and there doesn't seem to be a trace of smog. Maybe the prettiest I’ve ever seen the city.

Note: Due to computer difficulties and Internet censorship in China, this blog post was posted days after it was originally written. The author is also still figuring out how to post photos while updating his blog through proxy sites.