Daily Life in Beijing

Settling Down...

One of my friends asked me what a typical day is like for me here in Beijing. I decided that it would be an appropriate thing to blog about, so here I go. The only problem is there isn't really a typical day quite yet. We do have somewhat of a schedule and are starting to get into a groove, so to my knowledge, here is what a typical week looks like (I think):

Sunday: Church at BICF, lunch, free afternoon and evening
Monday & Wednesday:
schedule varies. We usually have about a half hour of class with the rest of the day free to do as we wish. The free day may consist of homework (as today did) or exploring or randomness or any combination.
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday:
7:30 - Run
9:30 - Leadership/Area study class
10:00 - International Class (for 2 hours)
12:00 - Lunch
4:00 - Chinese Class (for 2 hours)
6:00 - Dinner
Evening - varies... sometimes a movie, sometimes homework, sometimes Bonjour runs (bonjour is the closest grocery store to us), randomness...
*On Thursday, we don't have our International Class
Saturday: Free day


It doesn't seem like a very intense schedule, but for some reason the days seem much fuller. I think part of it may be due to the fact that we're still settling in.


About Running

I have so enjoyed making running a part of my daily routine (which is shocking for me to report). I probably should call it jogging - not running. I usually jog by a canal that is really close to our apartment complex. As I jog, I get to see quite a bit of Chinese culture: old men exercising on playground equipment, older women (and sometimes one or two men) doing some kind of slow, concentrated movements to music, people selling fresh produce and sweet potatoes on the street, men fishing out of the canal (which is disgusting because the canal is DIRTY), cars honking (people in Beijing LOVE their car horns), and so much more. This morning, I managed to run for 10 minutes without stopping, then did 7 and 8 in between walking a couple of minutes. My goal is to be able to run for 30 minutes without stopping by the time I leave. I never thought I could really run, but I'm learning to enjoy it, which is kind of fun. I think I just might be going crazy... :)

About the Food

Breakfast - My favorite thing to do is buy fresh fruit after I run in the morning. Normally I buy pineapple (freshly cut) and strawberries or bananas. The strawberries are in season, which makes me so happy!

Lunch - We've been having street food on most days. There are several options on the street. I think my favorite things are sweet potatoes (yes, I actually like them here), chicken sandwiches bu la (without spice), and cabbage that is cooked kind of like sliced-up pancakes. I usually try to get some fruit and the options vary, but it's fun. The street that we buy our food from is only about a two-minute walk from our apartment.

Dinner - We have various restaurants that have been designated as our meal plan. Our favorite restaurant to go to as a group is a restaurant we have fondly named "The Grand." We always order gong bau gi ding (peanuts and chicken), mifan (rice), sweet and sour pork/chicken, garlic broccoli, amazing green beans, and sometimes cucumbers or snow peas. All of these dishes normally come with plenty of sauce (which seems to cancel out the health benefits in my mind... but I still feel kind of healthy eating the vegetables). For dessert, we order jin yian mon tou (delicious sweet rolls served with sweetened condensed milk).
The servers bring out each dish at different times (as soon as they are finished cooking them) and we eat family style. Everyone just uses their chopsticks to take whatever food they want from each dish. It's like the equivalent of scooping everything out with your fork as you are eating throughout the meal. The plates we use are very small, which works out fine because we only eat a little bit at a time usually. We usually leave feeling quite full and satisfied. I don't think I'll ever be able to eat Chinese in the States again. It's just way too good here. It's safe to say that I'm not in any way being starved over here.

Okay, well hopefully that gives you a little bit of a better idea of what it's like here in Beijing. We have our classes in our apartment. We have bus and subway passes to get around town whenever we want and can take taxis if we want. There is still much exploring to do... but I'm going to try to work hard on homework to begin with so that I can just enjoy the last couple of weeks we are here without worrying about anything else.