This should give you an idea of my first few weeks in China.

On Jan 16, I arrived at Newark airport very early for a flight scheduled to take off at 12:15. Until just a day before my flight I thought my flight was from a different airport, JFK. Luckily I looked at my ticket before heading to the airport. I used a Continental Club day-pass I had been saving for two years to pass the time comfortably. The club had couches and mediocre food. I killed some time and at around 11:15, after hearing other boarding announcements, inquired about when my flight would board. The counter lady said that they would announce my flight’s boarding and there was no rush. So I relaxed and read. I had not read many pages so I was surprised when I looked up and saw 11:55. I should not have been surprised, since I do read slowly.

My heart stopped. Could the time be right? I checked another clock, and it was right. I headed toward the gate, running, sprinting! I double-checked the gate number. Then I started running again. The gate was located all the way at the end of a long corridor. I was sprinting as I heard the final call for my flight. I was afraid of missing it, but got to the gate at about 12:05. They somehow knew who I was -- the gate person saying, “Jeremy Godinger?” So I made the flight. I ran so fast and was tired. I never previously told anyone about this craziness. I would have been so upset had I missed the flight. For almost three years I traveled frequently and responsibly for my job so if you know me well all of this must sound strange.

The 15-hour flight (I heard it was the longest scheduled non-stop flight) was uneventful besides one man asking me to meet up with him in Hong Kong to discuss doing business with him. He said he wanted to start a school to teach English in China, something I was not interested in. I arrived in Hong Kong Friday night and stayed there for a few days. I was going to stay for only one day, just long enough to get the 6-month VISA I wanted, but a friend of a friend, Bruce, let me stay at his place. He stayed with his girlfriend. As I was having a lot of fun, I stayed until Tuesday morning. My first night in Hong Kong I stayed out all night! While in Hong Kong, I also went to a nice park for a picnic and hike and on an amazing walk with great views of the city. I also saw many areas in the outer territories, did a lot of walking, ate great food and met a lot of cool people during my short stay in Hong Kong.

On Tuesday morning, I traveled to Shenzhen, a part of mainland China that is close to Hong Kong. I wanted to see Shenzhen, a city in China I had never been to. The trip also enabled me to save some money by flying to Beijing from Shenzhen instead of from Hong Kong. In addition, because the flight would be domestic, this avoided my having to go through airport customs in Beijing. I took the regular Hong Kong subway to Shenzhen. After the last stop, I went through a turnstile and right there was a border check where I showed my passport.

Just about no one in Shenzhen spoke English even though it is so close to Hong Kong. I went to large hotel nearby after buying a map and some Chinese food off the street. At first, the concierge told me the bus to the airport was from the hotel and that there was no cheaper bus, but then I looked it up and showed the concierge that I could take a different bus not run by the hotel ($3 instead of $20). He agreed and showed me the bus stop on my map. He told me it was a short walk. However, it was not close at all, and I ended up walking with my luggage for 3 hours, during which I got lost once and also stopped a few times. I didn’t really mind since I wanted to see the city anyway. Two teenage boys followed me for about one hour. I am not sure why, as they never even attempted to speak to me. I tried to ditch them but they just reappeared, conveniently stopping when I did. It was not creepy as they were young kids.

I picked a restaurant where I could see the food and point but they sat me with two guys, one that could speak some English. He ordered for me. We chatted and I used some Chinese, but not much since I could hardly speak any. The person I chatted with most insisted on treating me to lunch and I didn’t know how to say no. I knew the bus stop was nearby but the guys walked with me and pointed me to it. The busses would wait until they were full and then leave, about every 15 minutes.

I arrived in Beijing on time and went in the regular taxi line. I knew the drill since I had been to Beijing twice before. I had the cab driver call Richard, the person I was staying with, to let the driver know the destination since I did not have the address written in Chinese. Richard met me in front of his building. When we got out of the elevator the hallway was dark and dusty with a few boxes stacked up on the floor, which was cement. The windows to some doors in the corridor were broken. Each apartment door had its own extra gate.

When we rang the doorbell, instead of a ding-dong or ringing sound, an automated voice started speaking in Chinese, “Hello, please open the door (ni hao, qing kai men).” I met Richard’s family. He has a wife, Bi, and two kids, an 11-year-old boy, Lujen and a 14-year-old girl, Yuri. They showed me to my room and the first thing I did was test the bed. It was hard, just as I like it. That night we had a nice dinner. We started lessons the next morning, Wednesday January 22. Today is February 10.

I have my own private room, as expected. It contains a desk, a chair, a bed that’s larger than a twin bed, and a closet. There is also a balcony full of boxes. The entire family of four sleeps in one bedroom (with two beds and a TV) while I have a room to myself. The apartment contains two bedrooms, a small kitchen, small bathroom (with integrated shower – that is, the floor of the bathroom is the floor of the shower), and a dining area that also has a table with a computer and the fridge. I estimate that the entire apartment is 350 square feet. The hot water must be turned on thirty minutes before you shower.

Bi cooks three meals a day and the food is always very good. Although it is different from what I am used to, I would not call it exotic. Some typical breakfast foods include fried eggs (I no longer get boiled ones since I do not eat the yolk when the egg is boiled. Either Bi thinks I do not like hard boiled eggs or does not want to waste the food!), lightly stir-fried rice with egg or ham, fried or streamed meat dumplings, and sweet dumplings (shaped in a ball with a sweet filling of chocolate or red bean, which I like these a lot). There are always apples or Asian pears on the table. The taste very close to the middle of the pears is no good while pears in the US are more consistent close to the center.

Lunch and dinner foods have included vegetables with garlic sauce or vinegar and sesame oil dressing, rice, porridge, noodles, meat stew, many kinds of fish and chicken with sauces, and small shrimp that slip out of the shell nicely. The food is cooked with onions, garlic, scallions, celery and carrots. We also often have freshly cut vegetables with a soy/peanut sauce, like that used with Peking duck. There is always some boiled water in a thermos and that is what I drink. I have stayed away from tea. The food is very good, and I cannot recall even one time that I did not eat a dish. We take our time at meals and I do not leave the table since that is a good time to speak Chinese.

Each day I get four hours of lessons at varying times, almost always in my room. A few times we have gone for walks (to the post office, to buy a plane ticket and to the bank, where Richard pays his bills) for part of my lesson. I also spend a lot of time studying Chinese characters and need to use creative mnemonics otherwise it would be impossible. I taught Richard the word mnemonic, which he remembers by using his own mnemonic, Monica. During lessons we often talks about Monica and Clinton.

Most days I play soccer and frisbee (two sports I hardly play in the US though they are a lot of fun) for an hour or two with Lujen and Yuri. Yuri does not always come along and when she does she watches more than she plays. She looks out for her little brother but prefers reading the paper to sports (though I think she’s just checking out the TV schedule). There is not a good park nearby to play so we play in a small park or in a public square near the supermarket.

We can now go beyond simple conversations such as “are you cold?” For a few days we played soccer in the small park, on densely packed ice (on top of cement) but after I fell a few times during one game I decided we would wait until the snow melts to play there again. When we are not just kicking the soccer ball, Yuri is the goalie in front of parallel bars normally used for gymnastics and Lujen and I compete. Sometimes we take turns being goalie and just practice kicking at the goal. I showed Lujen how to throw a frisbee the opposite way one normally does, and under his leg. I also showed him how to juggle a soccer ball, though I myself cannot juggle well. I didn’t really show him these things but he saw me do them and tried himself.

When we play frisbee at the public square we often come close to hitting people (and old ones at that) but they don’t mind. We once hit an old lady in the head and she smiled while Lujen laughed. She really did not mind much. We also hit cars often. When we kick the soccer ball in the street it sometimes goes in the way of bikers and they also do not make a big deal of it though I think it is very dangerous.

After playing sports we go to the supermarket and pick out fun snacks. I like yogurt, cookies, tofu, ice cream, and dried fruit. I learned how filling tofu is when I bought two cubes and could only eat one, after which I never felt so stuffed. The kids were both surprised when I bought some nuts by weight but filled the small bag with very few nuts. They were excited that they could do this and proceeded to pick out some small quantities of food. A lady stands there and marks the plastic bags with a price tag after weighing them. Once, after the candy was weighted and priced, the kids decided it was too expensive but did not want the lady to see them leave it. They wanted to leave it somewhere but I volunteered to give it back and tell the lady it was too expensive. The lady did not make much of a face. The kids were hiding and laughing in an embarrassed way while they watched.

A few times Lujen and I have practiced speaking with each other. Each of us spends thirty minutes in the other person’s language. Lujen and I have a lot of fun together. Bi said when I leave he will miss me, and that when I come back to Beijing I will come around to play sports with Lujen.

Most days are full days but I do make it out to see different parts of Beijing a couple of times a week. Last week I borrowed Richard’s bike to go to Beijing University (where I then locked the bike and jogged around). I jog every other day and try to go to a different route each time. We are over a mile from the subway but taxis are very cheap.

February 1 was the Chinese New Year (the Lunar New Year). We had a mini-feast on New Year’s Eve and watched TV. At midnight we had dumplings (the custom) and fish. Around the New Year people get off work for about a week, so that week was quiet. Since I’ve been here, the kids have not had school and work for Richard and Bi has been light.

We speak a mixture of Chinese and English in the house. Communication would be very slow if we never used English, and it is also nice to have some meaningful conversations, which I could not have if we only spoke Chinese. Richard and I occasionally converse about interesting topics and seem to always agree.

My Chinese is coming along OK. I say more and more when I am with taxi drivers and can sometimes put a few sentences together. I recognize characters on signs and talk to people in stores. I can ask a lot of questions but I do not understand much of the answers. Lujen laughs when I make mistakes because of a bad tone, or if I say words in a funny order. Then I ask why and learn so it is a good thing.

I have not taken many pictures since I’ve been to Beijing or visited major tourist sites, though I have been to a well-known shopping area (Wanfujing), to Beihai park and passed through Tian’anmen Square.

I went out both nights this past weekend, though I had not been out at night before then. On Friday, I went to dinner with Nick, a friend of a friend, and many of his friends. Then we went for drinks till 11:30. I learned to play a dice game and some tricks with the dice and a cup. Dice was much more fun than expected and the tricks with the cup were especially fun. Nick gave me a map of China with Pinyin (English characters so that I can read it) and that is the most useful thing I’ve had here.

Saturday night was the first time I have been out past midnight. I went out by myself to a Chinese nightclub. I was originally going to go to a club called Hot Spot (Ru Dian), but the taxi driver mentioned that Banana is bigger and better so I went there instead. At the coat check, I met two foreign guys, one from Puerto Rico and the other from Austria, and spent most of the night with them. We had fun dancing and spoke to a few people for short periods of time. One girl kept deliberately smiling at me, but when I went to speak with her I could not hear much with the loud music. I mentioned dancing to her. Oscar, the Austrian, later told me that I am supposed to ask multiple times, so maybe that is why she did not agree. I am not sure she even understood what I asked.

The elevator stops working at midnight and the steps are not well lit but I do them in the dark every now and then. Knowing that each flight is 15 steps is helpful though despite keeping track of that detail, I occasionally almost fall. I managed the eight flights fine when I returned home at 4 AM and with a buzz.

I have been to few restaurants since arriving in Beijing, all but once with Nick. For Richard’s birthday we went to a nearby restaurant and had some Peking duck, which I like very much. We also had some chicken that was similar to what we call Kung Pao only much better. The name of the dish, translated, is Palace Explode Chicken piece. That was the first time since I arrived that the family went out eat out. Yuri did her math homework at the table. Lujen kept doing toasts and would usually drink Sprite while I would pour shots from a small bottle of a very strong and popular alcoholic drink. He did occasionally have a shot of beer. He is looking forward to the next time we go out to eat together; I think he likes me buzzed.

I often fall asleep and wake up hearing Richard’s typing since he likes to be online, mainly for work. I am enjoying studying Chinese and relaxing in Beijing. In two weeks, I will be off to Kunming, where I have enrolled in an 18-week class that is 20 hours per week and includes optional Tai Chi.

Some random things I have learned and interesting notes:

l I heard is that the Chinese government fabricated the well-known story about the Internet fire where it was reported that many students, including foreign ones, died. They did this to crack down on Internet cafés and possibly Internet use. The story was all over foreign newspapers, and I read about it a few months ago in the US. I have heard here that the fire was very small. I have only been to one Internet café and cannot find them easily, but I hear that most Internet places are not easy to find from the outside without reading Chinese.

l There are different kinds of banks, and bills must be paid at one particular kind (of which there is one branch). You do not mail in bills or use checks. Instead, you pay in cash at the bank, though it does not have to be your own bank.

l You can wash fruit with dishwashing liquid soap. At first I thought, no way, but then it made sense. Think about it! Bi taught me this.

l The first time I rode a bike here I bought a bag of popcorn (flavored with sugar rather than salt or butter), put it in the front basket and ate it while I rode. I am some daredevil.

l Every aisle in the supermarket has one or two people there to help you.

l Fast food restaurants are efficient.

l People often ask about the one-child policy, especially since I live in a family with two kids. If you are an only child you are allowed to have two kids. Also, though it is the policy for others, it’s not a big deal for them to have two kids. Most people do not because they are so used to the custom.

l Cars like to honk a lot and think they have the right of way, though officially they do not.