A Good Start

A few of you (to not say my parents ;-p) have somewhat complained that I was taking too much time before adding a new post. My apologies to those but at first I wanted to actually have something to tell and then I got too busy. On the other hand, I feel that 1 post a week is a good pace. I would not want to loose you over boring details...

That being said, what have I been doing during this first week? Well I evidently wandered around a lot in poor neighbourhoods as well as in ultra modern shopping areas. I think it’s safe to say that Beijing is a city of extremes. It’s relatively clean I would say, especially when considering its gigantism. One thing is for sure, it’s exploding at an alarming pace with its huge construction and renovation projects at every street corner. It almost seen like the air has as certain concrete aroma. It’s not the only thing it’s got, it also have a color. Here you see what you breathe, on certain days anyway. The smog can be quite hallucinating.

Just about everybody asks me what do I eat and other food related questions. Well although I did see sea horses and snakes on sticks, I have not been that adventurous just yet. For now I kept myself on soups, stir fries of some sorts and other similar concoctions. Although I try to keep away from them, McDonald’s, KFCs and Pizza Huts are legions. Thus as far as food is concerned, it’s so far so good.

I would say that the highlight of the week is Stefanie, a “couch surfer” originating from a bit of everywhere in the world and who is already comfortably installed here in Beijing. "Couch Surfers" is a network of travellers who offer and seek couches to sleep on while travelling. For more information check out (www. couchsurfing.com ). She is extremely generous and is temporarily housing me for a few days. So right now I bathe in luxury. I’m in one of the huge and brand new 36 stories tall habitation complexes that are sprouting all over like mushrooms.

She takes me around to visit and helps me in general with her good advices. I started taking public transport including taxis. They are relatively cheap. The bus is virtually free (about 0.06$) but rather elaborated. So the adaptation is going well, almost too well in fact. I don’t want to loose that feeling of perpetual amazement too quickly.

To my great surprise, I also already found myself a bit of work. In fact, I’m starting today a weekly 2 hours English teaching session in a children class whom I have not met yet. I also started yesterday a part time French correction job for a cell phone company. I’m also in the midst of negotiation for 1 or 2 photography related jobs. All in all, a rather good start.