Today was a very chill day. I had my test in Chinese first thing this morning, and I think it went well. We spent the rest of class watching video clips about famous places in China while learning vocabulary and fun facts about them. In the middle of Chinese class, we found out that tomorrow's field trip is cancelled, so we made a plan for tomorrow that we would start with our oral test and then watch Mulan in Chinese. I'm pretty pumped for this, but really disappointed about the field trip.
We are currently experiencing some rain in Beijing. Last Saturday was the worst rain Beijing has had in 61 years. There has been immense flooding in the northeast of China, and highways are still closed around the city. Over 60 people died from the rain this past Saturday in Beijing alone. Since rain is predicted with over 50% probability for the next five days, we are playing it safe with our touring.
Tomorrow we were supposed to leave quite early to go to the Great Wall for TCM. The plan was to go with an herbalist to pick herbs and learn what they do at a section of the Great Wall that is closed to tourists. It is a key feature of the TCM portion of this trip, and an overall highlight. I was very excited to be going, and I'm really sad that we are not going tomorrow, but since I'd rather not be there in rain and mudslides, it's a better choice. I just really hope that we can reschedule and that the weather lets up for our final excursions. It had better rain tomorrow just so I don't feel like the trip was cancelled for nothing.
Saturday we have an elaborate plan for the excursion. The ideal plan is that we meet at 8AM to take the subway to the Temple of Heaven, followed by shopping at the Pearl Market, then a trip to the Peking Opera. If the weather is bad, traffic will not allow us to do any of this, and a decision could be made as early as tomorrow at noon or as late as Saturday near 8AM. I really hope the weather forecasts are wrong because I need this excursion to happen. If we have to cancel, I will need to find time to go to the Temple on my own and make a trip back to the Pearl Market so I can finish up my souvenir shopping. I also really want to see Peking Opera, but since I got a taste of it at the Teahouse on Tuesday, I won't be as heartbroken if we miss it.
Basically, I'm kind of depressed about the weather and its effects on our plans. I have been counting on and looking forward to these events and I do not want to be sitting indoors at Bei Da watching it rain instead of having nice weather (or tolerable weather) and doing things. I only have sixteen days left in Beijing, so I want to make sure I see everything I want to see.
That said, I had a very relaxing day after class. I got to work with my photos a bit (I have over 1200), which was deleting blurry duplicates and rotating images for about two hours. I watched some videos online and I did laundry. I think this will be my last time doing laundry here, but I can never say that with certainty. I even cleaned my room, which feels really nice.
I want to take a moment to remark on the fact that I had a successful interaction in Chinese today using the vocabulary I've been learning. I went out in search of Bei Da t-shirts for myself and my mother, and after stopping at four different places, I decided to get the ones I found at a particular stall. The difficulty in the endeavor is that Chinese sizes are significantly smaller than American sizes, so my options were limited by the fact that I was looking for larges. I could only find a suitable design in white, but I wanted the purple one. I asked in Chinese if they had the purple in a large (你又没有紫色？) and I asked for the size (大号) and I asked for two of them (两). Using colors, sizes, and the you meiyou construction, I navigated the interaction. I think I am best at using my Chinese when I am alone and forced to figure out how to say what I need to say. This time it was as if I flipped a switch and just knew what to say. It was really cool, and I left the store with two t-shirts in the proper size having successfully spoken a language that I knew two words of only six weeks ago.
Speaking of six weeks, my friends from the Green Tech program have been in Hangzhou for the past two weeks and are leaving on Saturday. It was sad to separate from them in the first place, but now that they're leaving the country and I won't see them until September, I'm getting a bit nostalgic. Since they're leaving this week, it means I'm leaving soon. And, yes, while I have counted out my contact lenses for the remainder of the trip, I am sad about leaving. I'm also kind of getting ready to see my family again, but it won't be the same kind of cool as China. But, as John Green once wrote, imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia, and I'm really trying not to wallow while I'm here.
This has been a really disjointed post, but that's the kind of day I'm having. Just recording my thoughts and the goings on here in Beijing.
It is currently not raining.
Today is awesome because I bought t-shirts by speaking Chinese!
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