bikes in Beijing...its raining. but its t-shirt weather at the sametime, so i'm happy (although my student was mystified: "it rains and is cold at the same time in SUMMER in UK?") The umbrellas are out...yep those on bikes without (and many, with) the weird bike raincoats all cyle with umbrellas -whilst their brakes have turned into nothing more than a screeching bell. not so safe (ever got an umbrella in the eye?)
my 'new' bike (2nd hand, bought for me by my student's auntie) has gears, is almost adult size, has real breaks and, well, seems more like a bike (sorry, flic!). Anyway my old piece of metal is now in Delphy's hands (good luck, but the bell on that one is better than on mine!)
this week i got ok test results, had some fun at a house party(where we got kicked out cause of the neighbours complaining), ate some japanese (and today ate some pigs trotters for the 1st time -probably not kosher! and not got much flavour either), saw Chris off at the airport, ran another successful CSR conference and got confirmation of Spurs being SO F***ING AVERAGE, its depressing :(
Since I was transferring my old yahoo posts over to nomadlife...It was weird going back through my old postings and copy-paste to nomadlife. I think back how much i have learnt about such a strange and previously unknown country, how many friends have come (and some have since gone) through beijing, how much like home this place has become, with routines and regulars (like my breakfast guy). How I knowBeijing better than London, since I am forced to travel around it all the time, and central beijing is smaller than london (plus i live closer to the centre relatively)...and how weird it was yesterday when my mum told my granny (before putting her onto me, by phone) 'its adam, he's in china'.
Yep, I'm in China. A very long way from home;with a strange language, a culture i will never understand, but like every foreigner here, think that i do.Since the american in my class says how much he loves america, but right now feels more comfortable outside of america (he really does love america), I was wondering, what about me. I'm not in the UK, although I spend 30 minutes a day reading the news from Times, Independent and other random sources (more time than i ever spent reading about my country when i was actually in it!). I also think the UK is great, despite lots and lots of flaws (undemocratic,overtaxed,wasteful, environmentally unfriendly ....). And its much better than China, but its not as fun as china. It seems like I 'know' the UK and its boring (although how many brits ever backpack around their own country to see it?). but china -well i don't know it, i don't know the language, and noone quite knows whats going to happen here next -witness the frequent topics of conversation about social unrest,inequality, communism, media control etc etc.
so what will i do? stay here, cause its now the 'sensible' option (its CHINA, says the media everywhere), where I feel like i am losing myfriends from back home, and never mentally said -lets leave thecoutry, and where i don't get to see my parents (for another 7 months when i go home hopefully). And i don't have a career sorted out yet.
moving to end this strange post, i think i am so unbelievably lucky.my past, my present, my future. I can't complain. I am happy, I've realised lots about my self that i didn't know -and thats a strange thought. I've realised that there are some good times that you don'twant to end, but when they do (uni in Manchester, MC in London,living in AIESEC China office) the next time will be even more fun.I've always known life is about people and about experiences(witness the signature in my yahoo account email account that hasnt changed for over 5years); and I've realised some new things will start happening inthenext few months. Some more decision need to be made. Some morepeopleare leaving (sadly), and more will be arriving.
Live's about people...people like you, reading this.
writing it has made me think; and its hopefully given you some food for thought (go on, chew on it) too...
Adam
2 comments:
;-) I don't know if I like nomadic life or not. But definitely I get bored if I stay in one place for longer than one year, I reckon. Strangely, AIESEC life adapts me into a one year life cycle. I might feel uncomfortable doing the same thing for the 2nd year.
Life is screwed or improved. I don't know. I guess at least we are not scared of changes and challenges happen to us. And we try our best to experience as much as we can though we are not clear what we will be doing for good - my parents always worry when I cannot give a promising answer towards this question.
So everyday we just expect the unexpected.
Love,
Jingwei
*tear* so touching, all this questioning about identity and belonging. *weeeeep* :)
Hey, keep me in the know about that little Shandong trip y'all are taking. You know it won't be a party unless Sylvia's there! :)
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