After getting back from Xi’an Sunday night we had to get back into the swing of things in Beijing right away which includes daily quizzes, endless new vocabulary needing to be learned, and our four hour classes every morning. This past week it didn’t seem to ever stop raining and on Wednesday I could barely go outside due to the weather. I left my dorm to go to the nightly optional office hours and as soon as I got into the pounding rain, even with my umbrella, I turned right back. We had some plans during the week that the rain threw off but luckily the weather wasn’t as bad over the weekend. This past weekend was actually the only weekend thus far where we have not had a pre planned group trip or activity with the rest of our class so it was nice to get to sleep in a little later than usual.
I took advantage of not having any predetermined plans for Saturday by going to some sites in Beijing that I wanted to go to but hadn’t had the chance to go to yet. Saturday morning a few other classmates and I went to the Summer Palace, which was mainly used by royal members during the Qing dynasty. The Summer Palace is basically a giant park on a hill overlooking a lake which makes for some quite good scenery. Unfortunately for us, the smog was quite thick that day so the scenery wasn’t as pretty as it usually is.
Afterwards, we also went to the Olympic park, the primary site of the 2008 olympic games, where I was able to go into the birds nest and water cube.
On Sunday, I went to 潘家园，or commonly referred to as the dirt market in English. The most similar thing I can compare this place to is a flea market, there is various booths throughout the outdoor market that is covered with a giant roof. This market had mostly traditional Chinese souvenirs such as calligraphy, paintings, fans, jewelry, and pottery. I was able to make some good purchases for relatively cheap and I also bought some children’s books in Chinese that I thought I could manage to read at my reading level.
When I was video chatting my mom earlier today she asked me what I was missing about America and this made me realize what I actually take advantage of in the US that is not the same or readily available in China. The two major things I realized I miss, in addition to food, are seeing the sun everyday and the sanitary condition of America. In Beijing, there is usually only sunny periods once or twice a week and it surprised me how much this cheers up my day every time. As for the sanitary conditions, although I enjoy China and the people here, I wouldn’t call China the most sanitary place. The absence of paper and soap in bathrooms or simply touching a dirty handrail make me miss the States a little bit more. Its bittersweet for me that in less than three weeks I will be back home. Although I miss Notre Dame and the US, I am definitely glad I took advantage of this opportunity and will miss it after it is over. I will have to appreciate the time I have left in Beijing.