Downs of the Touch- and Settling- kind

Its been a little over a week since I got here. A time that has been both interesting and daunting. To begin with, arriving on a Friday late in the evening, with a barren weekend to get through, was not the best of ideas. Fortunately, my China savvy friend Meha was already in town so I was able to hang out with her and a friend of hers, Erin, on Saturday for a bit. One of the places we visited was Panjiayuan, one of Beijings few remaining open-air markets, and probably the biggest. It is setup like a huge roofed pavilion with hundreds of little stalls selling Chinese antiques, paintings, scrolls, and the like. Meha wanted to pick up stuff for a wedding in Delhi she was attending later in the week. Erin and I merely made up the numbers; I was quite content to not be entirely lost.

I slept through much of the rest of the weekend. In part, I am sure, because of jet lag, but also in part, I think, because of general tiredness from the end of the semester and the frenetic running around of the past few weeks.

Then of course, Monday arrived, and classes began. The first few days definitely felt like hitting a brick wall. A huge number of new words, a textbook with minimal pinyin accompanying the character text, and the general sense of dislocation that accompanies any move, all combining quite potently to leave me feeling not a little wretched.

Things have eased up a little since, though the workload definitely has not.

One of the first things that struck me about Beijing was that the sky is never (ever) blue. Pollution combined with construction dust results in a constant greyscale, much much worse than anything Delhi has conjured up thus far. Last week’s rain has brought about a pleasant change and some clear blue skies but I wonder how long that will last. Other than that, it is amazing how much like Delhi it feels. Not in the details, but in the broader brush strokes: Wide roads, flyovers, huge urban sprawl, the similar mix of urbanization interspersed with bits of the rural, cars everywhere, and so on. I have to admit though that I have not encountered livestock of any kind anywhere. But that wouldn't be surprising in China. This is, after all, the capital and they are, after all, preparing for the Olympics. In terms of infrastructure development Delhi seems about 5 years behind.

I live in a two-person suite in a dorm right by the language institute. So it is convenient in that sense. The institute itself is in Chaoyang, the business and diplomatic district of Beijing: probably the more uppity part of town (for Delhites: akin perhaps more to Malcha Marg than to Mayapuri). My suitemate, Stephen, is a French guy who works for the French Embassy. He is fluent in Chinese, but speaks in English to me most of the time. Not sure whether that is for the best. My room itself is large, has two beds, and most importantly, central AC that I can control. We’ve also split the Y150/month fee for broadband Internet. No small matter, that.

Right now am waiting for Columbia people to arrive midmonth. Will be some welcome bonhomie. Doing individual classes while great for language pedagogy, I am sure, is rather hard socially. Language study still feels like hitting a brick wall. I have four hour long classes a day, with four different teachers. They are all quite good and friendly. It is just the quantum of work that is daunting in the extreme. I already have about 200 new words to learn (and that means not only their meanings but also how to write them). What is that Hindi saying? Aa bail mujhe maar!