糟糕

Bad Luck. My wallet got stolen Friday night. I lost my bank car, driver’s license, Beijing transportation card as well as my ticket from “HAIR” which I carried around with me as a good luck token. It really sucks. Currently I have about 4 元 to my name which is enough to get me to school tomorrow. I have 19 USDs that I’m going to get exchanged as well as a $10 Canadian bill from my trip there in 5th grade that is so destroyed that I doubt they will take it. But that’s life you know. I’m honestly just surprised this is the first time I’ve ever lost my wallet.
Well, I haven’t updated in a long while. I wrote an entry about Obama and china but I never polished it up, but if any of you want to read it just hit me up and ill send you the rough draft.
Since I last posted I took a trip to Qing Dao (青岛) which was amazing. I went with Marta and Graxi who also accompanied on the Inner Mongolia trip. They’re basically my travel posse and I theirs. Unfortunately Graxi transferred to Shanghai until Christmas but will return to Beijing in February. If anyone plans on traveling to China I highly suggest making a pit stop in Qingdao. It’s on the beach, its warm(ish) and positively beautiful. It is also the beer capital of Asia. We took a boat ride, climbed a mountain that was excessively tall and got to see the beer factory. The nifty part about Qingdao is that it was originally under the German Sphere of Influence (hence the beer factory) and some parts of the city look fresh out of Europe. But their accent annoyed me.
Also, my friend Deb Chesser from Albany visited me! She is living in Shanghai and her group made a trip to Beijing to do...something. She ended up sneaking me into the US Embassy’s Election Party, which was wicked sweet. That night we partied hardy for Obama at “Propaganda” the best nightclub on line 13. It was also wicked cool to see someone from home. It was totally surreal to be sitting in my noodle house across from someone I’ve known since I was eight.
When we walked into to the noodle house and Deb ordered her dish the first thing the guy said to her was, “Your from Shanghai”. People sound and talk completely differently in different regions of China. Beijing is popular for using excessive 儿 (er) sounds. For example saying Zher meaning here instead of Zheli. But they also apply it to other words that don’t need it, like my favorite bar district Sanlitun becomes “Sanliturn” It actually penetrates all phrases; there are “er”s everywhere. It first confused me because my teacher learned in Taibei which does not use the “er” sound. But now it’s common, it’s comforting. You know when talking with a Beijinger.
I’ve got less than a month now before I go home for Christmas. I’m really glad that I made the decision to come back for a little break from China. I feel slightly depressed that I am missing Thanksgiving. I had a plan to have my friends over to Marta’s house, make an apple pie and force them to celebrate an American holiday. These plans were complicated when I discovered Marta doesn’t have a stove. These plans were obliterated when I lost my wallet and now have no way to get the things necessary to make a pie.
Being here is a mixed bag. There are some days that I am so in love with what I’m doing that I can never imagine leaving this place. There are others when I just want to get out of this crazy backward country. But I know that Beijing will always be a part of my life, its inescapable now. I am a Beijinger. And there is something so powerful about that.
There are times when I’ll be coming home from a bar late at night, sitting in a taxi hoping the driver isn’t trying to cheat me out of money. And then you realize where you are; the cabbie will drive right past Tian’anmen. To my left, the vastness of Tian’anmen Square with all of its historical significance. And to my right, Tian’an Gate, then entrance to The Forbidden City, with the immense portrait of Chairman Mao staring right down at me. China was shaped within those walls. At the epicenter of the city, it is Beijing. It’s so majestic and surreal. It makes being here make sense. There’s a magnetism here and I don’t want to pull away.
Stay up
邓雍煌