First, a couple of random things to begin this post. 1) I'm not sure if it makes perfect sense or no sense at all, but Starbucks in China do not serve green tea. 5 minutes prior to me typing this, I went up to the counter and asked for a green tea, and they said sorry, we don't have that here. I was surprised, but then I thought about both sides of the issue and there are pretty good cases for both serving & and not serving the tea. Not Serving - well, you're in China so go to a really kick ass tea house and get some authentic tea! Serving - you're in a Starbucks, what if you want a hot drink besides coffee? Green tea would be an excellent option. Interesting to think about for a minute. I've thought about it, and still have made no progress towards one side of perfect or no sense. Oh well. 2) I went for my first jog this morning and was curious of how the air quality would affect my lungs... I was expecting the worst because just from walking around in Beijing for a few hours you can see grime and filth floating around in the air and at the end of any day you can feel a layer of it on your face, though it's not visible. It really wasn't that bad though. I think at the conclusion of my run I was a tad more "mucusy" than usual, but it wasn't hard to breathe or anything. I'm considering wearing a surgical mask (I would guess that 15% of the population wears them just walking around) when I jog next time to try and capture the Runaway Surgeon look. I'll let you know how that goes.
Today was a busy day. Jon and I secured our apartment which we are excited about. Better neighborhood in terms of people, shopping, bars/restaurants. MUCH better living space. 2 blocks from a subway. Plus, we'll both get to buy bikes so we can cruise to school everyday. Yup, that's right, I'm riding a bike to school, and no I'm not 12 years old.
After that I went to arrange 1-on-1 Mandarin lessons from a recommded school. I spent an hour there, had an assessment test w/ 2 instructors who placed me on the cusp of Advanced Beginner. So I purchased 100 hours of personal instruction. Which means beginning next week I will have Advanced Finance on Mon and Thurs, Mandarin on Tues, Wed, Fri and Decision Making on Sat and Sun. That's right, school 7 days a week until that Adv Finance class ends in June. Yikes, 7 days a week, all work and no play.
Jon and I are already pros at riding the buses in our area, but hadn't yet hopped on the subway until today. I would rank it as easier than riding in NYC for first timer. All the different lines of trains are clear, the maps and stops are clear, it was pretty easy. I was happy about that.
We went to the Forbidden City this afternoon too. I literally could not get over how colossal this place was. Absolutely enormous. My description will not do it justice. Very cool though. Check out the latest album in my public gallery for a few pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jdorrian2334
We're moving tomorrow into our new pad. We might go to the Great Wall this weekend too. Stay tuned for more updates on the new 'hood and new adventures.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Wow!! My son the runaway "surgeon"!! Who would have thought it....
Post a Comment