Average Beijing Week

On Monday evening, I finally ventured into Beijing to explore a little.  I hadn’t left the campus yet except to buy my bicycle, so it was time to do some exploration.  Tsinghua University is outside the main part of the city, so it takes some planning to get there.  Just about everyone went as a group on the subway system (with Molin as our guide) for dinner.  We split up once we got into the city center with some people eating at KFC, some eating street food (think roadside stalls), and the rest of us going to a hotpot restaurant.  Hotpot restaurants are a lot like fondue.  You order plates of raw meat (for us, lamb, chicken, and beef) and then drop them in the vat of boiling water flavored with onions, chives, and other seasonings.  After they’re cooked, you fish out the meat, dip it in the peanut sauce, and eat it.  Keep in mind that we’re using chopsticks the whole time, so not only are we trying not to splash hot water on ourselves but we’re also attempting to maneuver the food around with slippery plastic sticks.  It was difficult at first, especially fishing out the cooked meat, but we all got the hang of it in the end.  We had our own private room because we had 9 people (although, as we always end up with private rooms, I think they like separating out the Americans at some places).

The next evening we had dinner and dancing plans with our professor.  The whole class, including the Tsinghua and National University of Singapore students, went out to dinner at a restaurant on campus.  It was traditional style Chinese food complete with pig ear meat as an appetizer.  When we walked in, Professor Zhou told us not to sit with friends, to sit with new students.  I ended up at a table with three Tsinghua students, one NUS student, and two other Americans.  We talked about everything under the sun, everything from dating habits to the GRE (which they are all taking in the fall) to handgun laws in the United States.  

After dinner, when we were just sitting around, we decided to play a game.  I don’t know if you have heard of Big Booty in the USA, so here is a brief description:
One person is the ‘Big Booty,’ and everyone else is assigned a number in order.  Everyone claps in rhythm and chants, calling out other numbers when you number is called.  Big Booty always begins the game.  A typical game could be: ‘Big Booty, Number 1’ ‘Number 1 Number 2’ ‘Number 2 Number 5’ ‘Number 5 Big Booty’ and so on.
Because we are in China, we modified the game to be ‘Big Buddha.’  It was challenging playing with the Tsinghua and NUS students because it was their second language, so after a while we switched it up to make it challenging for the Americans.  We started playing in Chinese!  It was really difficult to start with because I didn’t know any of the numbers, but now I really know how to count to 7 in Chinese (because we had 7 people playing).

After dinner, we headed over to the dancing.  There was a courtyard with music playing that apparently hosts dancers every evening.  It was mostly older people doing ‘real’ dances such as the tango and waltz.  The music was incredibly varied.  I heard everything from waltz to traditional Chinese to a disco version of the Titanic song.  We all got out there and danced, pulling on our knowledge of the box step and swing dancing, and Scott even attracted a small crowd with his break dancing.  It was a fun way to spend the evening.

Tonight we went out for dinner again.  There is an Italian place called Tafi near the main gate of the university that has been highly recommended by past program participants, so we decided to test it tonight.  They were right; it was delicious.  We were celebrating our first exam being over.  Many of us wanted to have a fun night out, but everyone was so tired after studying like mad for two days straight that we could only handle dinner.  We are taking ISYE 3104: Introduction to Manufacturing and Warehousing right now, and it is intense.  It’s a quantitative class, meaning that it involves a lot of outside study to get your head wrapped around all of the concepts and formulas.  We spend so much time in class that it is hard to find the right balance between study and exploration (on a study abroad), but I think we’re doing OK now.

One more quick update: I am doing a lot better with food.  I found several food cafeterias on campus with much better food than the first one I found, and I have discovered several dishes that I really like at each place.  I also am getting better at ordering food in Chinese, so I am not as surprised any more.  We’re also exploring ‘real’ restaurants more now, so that helps as well.  It’s a little troublesome trying to find out if packaged foods have milk or not, but I am doing my best!