Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Coincidence

Crap. I think I’m a little sick.

My throat started to feel scratchy yesterday. I didn’t think about it too much; maybe I inhaled some dust while exploring the campus.

Well, my throat is quite sore now, and I’m coughing. The bottles of Purell I brought unfortunately couldn’t protect me.

I can’t help but notice the coincidence that I get sick when China is taking such strong measures to prevent swine flu from entering the country. Yesterday I received a call from the school, with a woman asking about my health.

“Have you had any flu-like symptoms, such as fever or headaches, recently?” the woman asked.

“No,” I said in a knee-jerk response.

“Okay. Rather than calling you everyday for the next week, please call us if you have any problems with your health.”

I turned off my cell phone, thinking my answer wasn’t totally accurate. But the last thing I want is to be quarantined.

I hope my current ailment is only a sore throat and nothing more. It doesn’t quite help though that I have to go the local health center tomorrow to verify if I need another medical check. Maybe I’ll just have to postpone that for another day. Or maybe, I’ll just end up calling the school after all. Sigh.

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.

Heading out

After spending part of this summer back home, I'm off to Beijing tomorrow. I have fond memories of the place. I took this photo in the summer of 2004, when I was there doing a study abroad program. It was the cloudiest city I had ever been to, with pollution that literally made your skin itch.

Not exactly a fond memory. But things have changed a lot there. Back in January, I stopped in Beijing to see an aunt, and in the three days I was there, I did not see one cloud in the sky. Nice clean air, no doubt an aftereffect of the Olympic games.

I'm not sure what I can expect from Beijing. But it'll be an interesting transition. Xi'an had a population of 8 million, and now I'm headed to a place with over 17 million. I'll also be moving from China's ancient capital, all the way to the country's current capital.

What's more is that a few months ago I was a teacher at a college in China. But now, soon I'll be a student, studying Chinese. How the tables have turned! I'm looking forward to being back in school again. But I'm really heading to Beijing to find more journalism opportunities. At the very least, I know they'll be some blog writing to be had.

Goodbye Oregon. See you next time!