Back in Beijing

Firstly, I wanted to celebrate. I spent the summer holiday writing this blog on my mobile phone. Now that I am back in China, I can graduate to my laptop. Hurrah!

I do have another reason to celebrate. It is about two years since I first arrived here in Beijing. It feels good to return to “normality”. If a noisy, heavily polluted yet interesting and exciting city can be described as normal. For me, it is coming back to what I know and it is therefore normal for me now.

What has changed in these two years? I have gained a lot of experiences which have taught me how to deal with many professional, social and cultural situations. I can now communicate adequately (to a certain degree) with Chinese locals, although often get to the point of a conversation where I can’t understand or say exactly how I feel and therefore feel frustrated with myself. Continuing my Mandarin lessons will hopefully build on my skills.

I also like to think I have become more Beijing-wise. I now know when someone is trying to overcharge me with “foreigner tax”. I am still nowhere near amazing at navigating around this huge city, but the feeling of disorientation and being lost occurs much less now. If I ever do find myself in a strange place, I can now ask for directions to the underground or explain where I would like to be to taxi drivers. This definitely makes life more comfortable (and less stressful) when compared with two years ago.

Mother nature can sometimes be a cruel mistress. Beijing is usually a super dry city. I think I can count on one hand the amount of times it rained in my first year residing in Beijing. But on my first full-day back in Beijing, there is indeed a shower of acidic rain merrily dancing through the sky and dampening the streets below. Another perk of living here for two years is knowing that if is does rain (or more often the case – if the pollution levels are too high) and you don’t want to leave the house, you can order in food very easily.

Fast food chains do deliver to your home here in Beijing. However, I prefer to use companies like Sherpa’s Food Delivery Service. You log on to their website, choose a restaurant in the city, select what meal you would like and then the delivery man will hop on a scooter, go to the restaurant, collect your order and bring it straight to your door. The delivery costs depend on the distance to your place.

Tipping is unheard of in Beijing, but this is a service I have really valued since living here, so I regularly tip the deliverymen - especially on a smoggy day. To celebrate my Beijing two-year anniversary, I ordered bacon and chicken fusilli (NOT easy to find good bacon here), a zucchini carrot cake and a peach, banana, passionfruit, oat, honey and yoghurt smoothie. Happy Two Years, Bejing, here’s to having a great new year together!

Tôi sống ở Bắc Kinh được hai năm rồi. Tôi thích cuộc sống ở Bắc Kinh, nhưng không khí ô nhiễm đến nỗi không thể thở được. Sự khác biệt trong ngôn ngữ và văn hóa xuất hiện như sự thử thách thật sự. Văn hóa Trung Quốc vừa độc đáo vừa hấp dẫn.
Tôi không biết tại sao nhưng tôi luôn nghĩ nền văn hóa của các nơi khác thú vị hơn nền văn hóa của nước tôi.