a day in the life.

Most excellent blogs about a life abroad give the reader, at one point, a peek into the daily world of life in another country. Since the majority of my energy is being poured into the occasionally-daunting task of "settling in", I thought I should pass on the information (and of course, I'm looking for any excuse to put off the Chinese study for a few minutes).

My time as a ZhongGuoRen has yet to reach one week, but I anticipate that many of my days will start to look similar as I settle into a routine.

7:15--rise and shine!
7:30--actually get out of bed (surprisingly, even though Chinese mattresses aren't known for being plush, it is STILL hard to get out of bed). Shower, brush the teeth, eat my over-priced Cheerios, decide which outfit I'd like to sweat through today.
8:30--head out of my temporary apartment at Dong Sheng Yuan, and walk through the apartment complex past groups of old women tai chi-ing, and 12 year old guards watching my every move.
8:35--walk out into busy WuDaoKou, past restaurants of all flavors (Xingjiang food being my personal fav), delicious piles of garbage, taxi cab craziness, and bikers galore.
8:47--arrive at my school, located on the 20th floor of a 23 floor office building. Push the button, wait among a throng of anxious Chinese buisness folk for the next available elevator
8:50--probably still waiting for the elevator
8:53--squeeze into an elevator meant for 15 with 20 other people
9:00--class starts. My class consists of myself, and my classmate, a delightful woman named Heidi from Tahiti. Heidi has been studying for a month before I arrived, and her Chinese is definitely better (and I'm pretty sure she's quicker than I am). Most of our class is spent speaking, which is actually really great and helpful. WELL, only time will tell if it's actually helpful...at this point, it seems almost like a hopeless cause
9:50--break from humliation
10:00--nose to the grindstone
12:00--after nearly going crazy, finally finished for the day. After class, a bunch of students usually wait around and grab lunch together. Today I ate with Heidi, Juan from Mexico, and Stephanie from US for a great (and cheap) Western meal. It was like music to my stomach after a barrage of very mediocre Chinese food.
1:30--nap. This is when I realize that I am indeed no longer a working woman...I can have a long lunch, head home, catch up on some news and e-mails, and grab a quick snooze. It's almost always at this point in the day that I say to myself "I love my life right now".
2:15--nose to the grindstone, again (except for days like today when I make up excuses not to study...blogging is a valid reason not to do work, right?).
3:00--I get distracted by facebook, e-mail, news and general problems related to an un-diagnosed case of ADD.
3:15--back to the grindstone
5:00--evening activity. So far, this has consisted of a wide variety of things. The last few nights, I have headed over to the East side of Beijing to hang out with Matt and others (a 40-minute trip each way). Tonight, it seems that my latest impulse purchase (Twilight) may occupy much of my evening.

If you are still reading this, you deserve the "great friend" award. So far, it seems that most of life consists of settling. Soon, hopefully, there will be tales to tell of adventure in the Far East, most likely consisting of much frustration, excitement, ingenuity and a little bit of good luck.

Until next time,
Zai Jian!
k