Beijing flight & weather
Okay, so here I am in 北京 Beijing, China. I flew in on Sunday and it was so very tiring! I met a really nice couple on the plane who were from Melbourne going to Beijing for a tour with the rest of their family. They definitely made my trip a little better, especially when I had trouble reaching for my bags in the overhead compartments! If only I wasn’t so short…. speaking of my height, yet another YOUNGER cousin of mine has overshot me! *cry*
Landed in Beijing
Anyways, the first day here was really hectic going around looking for some place to stay and just getting to know the area. Even though I made several attempts to book a dorm room, the fuyuans wanted me to TT over a deposit before hand. But I didn’t trust this method since I read that someone had trouble with receiving a receipt and securing the room …
Exploring BLCU
I’m so glad my cousins’ boyfriend helped me out (she would have seen to me though, if she were in Beijing at the time), I would have been completely lost had he not been there! He even help point out some sites, bars, clubs around 五道口 Wudaokou area ^_-
In the quest to find accommodation, I found myself walking around ALOT. When my cousins’ bf said that you get used to the walking, I thought he was kidding.
BUT HE WASN’T.
I stopped walking excessively when I got my license, these leg muscles aren’t up to the usual standards!! But all that walking we did really helped me get a better orientation of the 五道口 Wudaokou area and BLCU campus =)
Beijing September Weather
北京 is still in Summer mode, so this means the pollution is not your best friend. When the plane was landing, it descended into a thick haze and I was a bit suprised at how bad the pollution is. I’ve also worked out why China people like spitting! All this pollution gets to my throat and it’s been irritated ever since I’ve been here!!!
It also doesn’t help that we’re walking everywhere… breathing in all the fumes at the same time. The walking isn’t that bad, I’ve always said I needed more excercise right? hAHa Well I’ve been definitely getting my fair share of exercise now! My aim is to become a pro in walking around with heels on like the local girls ^_- (It’s a lot harder than you think because some roads are unsealed, potholes everywhere, the sidewalks are shonky etc)
BLCU accomodation
[Click for another more detailed post on BLCU Dorms]
My first impression of BLCU campus was that it was a MESS. There didn’t seem to be much logic in what they did… they have the phone numbers to the other dorm buildings but would refuse to call them on our behalf. They expected us to go to each of the dorms and ask if they had available rooms! And each of the dorms seem to all work independently from each other so it all depends on whether the 服员 fuyuans are nice or not.
The dorm rooms are alright, not something to be too excited about especially when I’ve got about 30 dead mozzies splattered on my wall (plus a few live ones). What I was a bit annoyed with was that I can’t use the Aussie 2 pronged plugs. These Chinese people want you to have 3 prongs or you can’t use it at all!! NO LOGIC I swear!
My room is on the 3rd floor and is at the very end of the hall near the fire exit. The good thing about that is that I’ll be the first to escape if there’s a need to, and it’s fairly quiet down the end because you don’t have people walking past your room all the time. Our window overlooks the main road however, and that isn’t cool because you can hear the traffic quite clearly at night.
Roommate
The 服员 fuyuans told me that I’ld be sharing a room with a Korean girl which was totally fine with me since I figured I could ask her to intro me to some cool kdrama or gasoos. But rumour has it that BLCU – Wudaokou area has a massive number of Koreans and they all stick together and snub us random internationals =( So I was a bit worried I’ld have some bitchy Korean chic as my roommate.
When my roomie finally arrived on Sunday, I didn’t even meet her until 9ish that night because I was out the whole day. As it turns out, the 服员 fuyuans like to talk crap because my roomie is Vietnamese. She seems nice enough though, we have our moments where we completely don’t understand each other because my standard of Chinese is crap. Yeah, our common language is Mandarin!
She totally owns me in Chinese! Although sometimes I find that she pronounces some words like a Viet. But this is to be expected because she actually teaches Chinese in Vietnam!! We just found out that she’s an ox too so that makes her exactly 12 years my senior. I bet mum’s happy with this arrangement, I doubt I’ll be having any parties in this room LoL!
Oh yeah, I need to find some clothes to wear pronto! I brought along too many winter clothes and I left a few things in KL because I was boarderline overweight =( The clothes that I’ve seen here aren’t exactly great… they seem to like big baggy aka oversized clothes.
So that’s all for now, I know I haven’t taken many photos at all since my arrival. I’ve just been waaayyyyyyy too tired or busy organising everything and I just can’t be bothered right now.
And on the side note, I can’t access Xanga!
再见！
P.S. Check out the other posts in the Travelling in China category
