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I can’t seem to finish writing this post, it’s been sitting as a draft for days. I find myself continually procrastinating, mostly because I’m not a talented enough writer to do the experience justice. I’ve decided to try anyway. It’s long, so I’ve broken it up into a few posts.

I’ve been in Beijing for a few days now. It’s been hectic, to say the least.

Day Zero

After a 24 hour journey, I arrive at the “hotel” supplied for my internship. It’s part of the Beihang University and is better described as a fancy dorm. I got there by taxi, thanks to an indecipherable printout of chinese characters. Luckily, the instructions were unambiguous, because I would can neither answer nor understand anything the driver is saying (OK, that’s not quite true. I’d learned a little Mandarin, enough to say vital phrases such as “I don’t speak Mandarin,” “I don’t understand what you’re saying,” and “What?”).

Although it’s 7pm, it’s still quite hot out. And muggy. Haze covers the city; I can barely see the sun.

Neema meets me at the hotel/dorm and tells me how happy he is that I arrived on when the weather was so nice. Apparently，95% humidity and more smog than I’ve ever seen in my life constitutes nice in Beijing.

I stay in my room long enough to find my basketball shoes, then proceed to play 2 hours of basketball on no sleep in the blistering heat of an indoor basketball court. I’d forgotten how much I love playing basketball, even if it takes three games before I feel like I can breathe.

I passed out quickly when I return to my room, but not before setting the A/C to 17 degrees. I barely slept, despite taking sleeping pills in the middle of the night. I’m still on some strange mix of Lisbon and Seattle time.

Saturday was apartment hunting day. After getting a Chinese SIM card for my phone, we browsed through That’s BJ, the local classifieds in English with the a porn-site name.

There seem to be three levels of apartment housing in Beijing:

1. Top: As with hotels, the top end of the scale is always the same — expensive. This caters to expats on expense accounts.
2. Medium Tier: Not quite up to the level of western housing a spoiled kid like me is used to, but pretty comfortable (A/C, in-apartment toilet, etc).
3. All Others: These aren’t even advertised on That’s BJ. Usually these have shared toilets and bathhouses, etc.

I’m only here for three months, but don’t feel like spending western prices (especially since I’m on a Chinese wage), so I went for the medium tier.

After biking around all day in the sauna-like weekend heat wave, I ended up choosing the first of the apartments I saw — a two bedroom in the “Russian Neighborhood.” Supposedly, the area is full of Russian expats and other foreigners, but I have yet to see any of them. (Except at a solid Russian restaurant around the corner)

Signing a chinese lease was surreal. Fortunately, there was an english translation.

My biggest fear after signing the lease was never finding the apartment again (I had a vague idea how to get back there, and no clue how to ask for directions). I had the real estate agent write down my address and directions for cab drivers.

I can’t decipher the instructions, but they’ve gotten me home once or twice already. I feel like a helpless little kid, with a “Take me home” sign stapled to my chest.

Life in Beijing has improved by leaps and bounds in the past few days. This is mostly due to the temperature decrease (although it’s starting to heat up again). I’m getting into new routines and adjusting to the initial culture shock — I haven’t had an “I wanna go home” moment since that feverish first weekend (perhaps I’m too sensitive to temperature?).

Last night was the first time I started to understand why people fall in love with Beijing.

I ate the best Korean food I’ve ever had, stuffing myself with BBQ, potato pancakes, and beer for under $5. We then went to a cool bar in the hutongs where Neema occasionally DJs on a Tablet PC (one of those things you get to do when you’re an exotic foreigner), a relaxed place with comfortable seats and courtyards.

At the end of the night (midnight, since I’m still a little jetlagged), I biked home through the hutongs. Even they’re in the middle of one of the largest cities on earth, life in the hutongs is incredibly quiet and relaxed. There were tons of people outside eating, drinking, playing board games — especially older people. The elderly in China all seem to live active, outdoor life styles — I see them doing Tai chi at all hours.

You never quite know what’s around the corner when you’re in a hutong. Maybe it’s a row of bars in restaurants, perhaps an ancient temple, park, pre-olympic demolition/construction, or (as happened to me a couple of times last night) a dead end.

Then again, maybe I was only in a good mood because it was a cool night. We’ll see this weekend.

The weather here has not been what I expected. Before coming to Beijing, people told me it was very dry here — many said I would need daily moisturizer.

My first weekend here was extremely hot and humid, then it rained, then it was gloriously sunny, then it got hazy and hot again, and this afternoon there was a total downpour (I experienced my first thunderstorm in years — it only drizzles in Seattle).

Apparently, the government likes to induce rain through cloud seeding — I don’t know if the rain I’ve seen here has been due to seeding, but the locals say this much rain is not normal.

I just hope it stays cool. I don’t mind the rain much either, as long as I’m not biking when it happens.

I really miss having a dryer.