Hmm..

China is an amazing country at the best of times and an infuriating country at the worst of times. Today, we went for an amazing lunch, which was basically a wok filled with potatoes, and white cabbage cooked with chilli, garlic, soy sauce and some nice spices (I'm not really doing it justice), only to find that I had to pick dozens of individual peppercorns off every potato. We learnt our lesson though, and my friend found out the word for peppercorns so that we'll never have the same problem again! I know that this anecdote sounds relatively minor compared to my opening statement, but I will expand later!

I notice that the number of followers of this blog has more than doubled - I feel so popular!! I will try and make this as interesting as possible, aiming to omit the boring details.

So my life has fallen into a routine - alarm goes off at 7, I snooze for 5 minutes, get up, go to the kitchen, get told off by the mum for not wearing a coat because I'll catch a cold (she does this every day!), have a banana and a piece of toast, and get on the bus to go to school. Four hours a day of Mandarin is tough going at the best of times, and because I'm still jetlagged, it feels even harder! I go for lunch after the school, and generally get home about 2ish. I should be doing about 3 or 4 hours a day of self-study, but I've been so tired, that I've only been able to do about 2 and a half hours a day. My Chinese is improving at an amazing rate now, and I feel that I can both comprehend and say a lot more. I'm sorry to disappoint everyone, though, but there's no way that you can attain fluency in just 2 months. I know people that have been studying intensively for a year, and they still can't speak like a local. Learning Mandarin is significantly harder than learning any European language, as I have to memorise around 40 characters a day, as well as learning their sound and meaning. Not an easy task!

Last night, I thought it would be a good idea to go to football training with a friend that plays for a relatively good team in Beijing. Haria-Shah's aren't cut out to be footballers at the best of times (Mihir's knees being the prime evidence), but the fact that I hadn't done any strenuous exercise since December 2008 meant that I was in no physical condition to do any intensive training. The result: legs that have been aching the whole day, but the intention to start running quite frequently (note that I haven't defined frequently!).

Anyway, back to my rant: China is a country that runs on red tape and bureaucracy. I was only issued with a one month visa before I got here, and was told that I could increase it upon arrival. When I reached China, and asked the school about extending my visa, they told me that I had to open a Bank of China account, prove that I had at least 3000 US dollars in that account, and obtain a residency permit. This means numerous trips to the bank and other equally annoying places! I went to the Bank of China today, spent an hour setting up my account, did everything asked of me, only to find out that my new Bank of China debit card didn't work, and that I'd have to return on Monday to sort it out. Ridiculous!

People have been asking me how much Beijing has changed since the last time I was here. The truth is that I can't really say, as I'm based in a different district. However, I have noticed a couple of things - mainly that I no longer get stared at. I went to China expecting the same shameless stares that I got last time, but I'm somewhat disappointed that I'm no longer the object of people's fascination!! Maybe being in the nation's capital a year after the Olympic Games has something to do with it.

The weather has been mixed - the temperature is normally between 10 and 15 degrees Celcius, but there's often a really horrible wind with it. The mum tried to send me out of the house wearing a blue, woman's coat today, but I wasn't having any of that. Trying to establish credibility in a new city is hard enough, without wearing clothing intended for the opposite sex!

The mother continues to be as stiffling. Today, she sat over me for half an hour whilst I did my Mandarin homework - I was quite irritated by the end of it. And every day, she comments on my vegetarianism, asking me what I can eat, and still finding it as strange as it was 6 days ago!

Aside from that, not much has happened. I'm going to explore around Beijing this weekend, and should go for a few beers tomorrow which will be nice. I also have mountains of work to catch up on

Pictures will be uploaded soonish - still need to buy the relavent cable.


Also, Mum said that people had had trouble commenting. Its an annoying format, I know, but I think that you have to click the comment button, select Google Accounts, and sign up for it using your current email address (you don't need a Gmail address)!

In other news, I saw a cyclist hit by a car driver here, but fortunately no-one was hurt!

Lots of love,

Nihal