Settled In

2 weeks in, and things here are going pretty well. The accommodation is basic but adequate, I'm accustomed to the squat toilets, and I get on pretty well with my roommate and everyone in my class. The only problem with classes is that they start at 8, but fortunately everything is quite close so it's not a major problem. There is, however, one student consistently showing up at 8:30, which is a source of great merriment to our oral teacher.

Classes go from 8 until 12, with a short break every hour, allowing those inclined to go out for a smoke (there are a lot who are inclined, mostly European and Korean), and to buy refreshments from the stall on the ground floor of the building. After class, there is a mass exodus, mainly to the cafeteria, which is the cheapest place to get lunch. The cafeteria is where most of the local students go (I have met local students here studying Korean, Spanish, Arabic, and teaching Chinese as a foreign language). Upstairs from the cafeteria is a more restaurant-like affair with standard Chinese dishes, a good place to go with a group. We have gone to lunch as a class (or most of the class) a few times, to this place, and to the Muslim restaurant. This usually costs about Y10-15 per person (somewhere around AU$2), but you can eat at the cafeteria for as low as Y3-4. We have cards for buying food from the cafeteria (they are RFID based and store an amount of money) but they don't seem to work at the other eateries on campus.

Most of my afternoons have been hanging out with classmates. There is a sharp contrast between the rooms you pay for (a bit over Y100 per night) and the ones our scholarship covered - they are basically serviced hotel rooms. My classmates are from all over - the Phillipines, Korea, Japan, the US, Canada, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Mongolia, and probably some others I'm forgetting. Some of them don't speak English too well, so we speak in Chinese a lot amongst each other. There will be a big party tomorrow night, should be fun.

Unfortunately I haven't spent much time going around Beijing, just around Wudaokou (the area near our school) and Zhongguancun. I plan on doing so soon, but I do have a few more months here. I've just signed up for the school's trip to Inner Mongolia in late April, which should be a lot of fun. Until then there are plenty of places I can visit within or close to Beijing, like the zoo, museums, and Tianjin, which is quite close. I'll be posting here as interesting things happen.

For those interested, helicopters seem to make regular flights over this area. They look like they could be Harbin Z-9s, a Chinese version of the Eurocopter Dauphin. Haven't seen any other interesting helicopters, except Z-6 (Mi-8) at Harbin airport. Will probably see a lot at the military museum which I plan on visiting sometime in the next couple of weeks.