Six months teaching in China: the half way point

Time has flown on Dave’s six month teaching internship in China, and he’s already three months in! Here’s what he thinks of China so far.

Time is a strange thing that even my most nerdy and science obsessed friends would struggle to explain the basics of. I have been in Beijing, China for just over three months, which equates to half of my time here. The last month has evaporated in relation to a confusing and disorientating first two months, where each day seemed to be deliberately taking 50 hours to move on. So I will take the time, at this time, to explain the kind’ve time I’ve been having and we will decide wether or not I have been having a bad time, a good time or the time of my life. Time to start. Time is money.

It is fair to say that I have had a mostly positive experience, I have discovered shops and food and people and things that have made the whole trip worth it individually, let alone as joyous as the synergy provides. When it comes to experiences I am grabbing the bull by the horns, or by the testicles, it is all the same when it is chopped up and mixed in with the rice.

Stepping outside my intern social circle to infiltrate the circle of others has proven to be one of the best decisions I have made. Canadians, Brazilians, Mexicans, Australians and everything you can imagine are everywhere, and I have befriended as many as I can. I have managed to find two people in particular as my partners in adventure including a fellow Intern that shares my lemming like approach to travel and investigation, usually based around food or video games. Secondly I have made a friend with a relatively long standing citizen that imported themselves to Beijing over two years ago from England. I severely recommend being open to this kind’ve relationship when you are here despite any reservations you might have about not getting fully immersed with English speaking friends, anyone who has lived here for that long will know all the places to go, either for immersive experience or for those moments when you just want a cheeseburger or ‘proper’ Chinese food. I have had more important, life altering conversations and discoveries with these two in the past month than I have ever had.

When it comes to my fluent English speaking Chinese friends, I have met an unusually large amount of talented photographers, one of which donated a copy of her first book to me signed and dated. Another which introduced me to the fabulous world of the faux-speakeasy, tiny hidden bars in Hutongs that resemble the wall illusion from Labyrinth more than a bar. The hidden front face of a bar that opens up into a glorious 1920s style speakeasy with relatively cheap and appallingly strong cocktails. I also met a woman who is responsible for buying movies from L.A for the Chinese film market and translated bits of the Marvel trade edition of Civil War, which is awesome. There are a lot of interesting people here.

I don’t want to spend too much time talking about temples and walls and squares because these are all things that, while impressive, mean nothing to you until you are standing in them, but the importance of good people and good conversation is universal I think. Though some people will, for some deluded reason that I will never understand, treat Beijing like a two week holiday in San Antonio wherein they drink their money away and complain endlessly about never having any money. It is another way to enjoy the place that I don’t quite relate to, not wrong, childish, stupid and a massive waste of time necessarily, but not for me.

My only hope over the next 3 months is that my Chinese, that I have been studying intensely to the point of near insanity, reaches a level where I can make some friends or acquaintances with whom I speak exclusively in Chinese. The alternate feelings of homesickness and never wanting to leave are usually related to my inability to speak Chinese and my somewhat unusual passion for learning it and embedding myself in a Hutong somewhere.

It has certainly been a great time so far.