First I would like to explain why there aren't any pictures in this post (yet that is). Blogspot is currently blocked right now and although I've been able to get around that and post text I still haven't figured out how to use a proxy effectively to post pictures. I apologize for the absence of pictures but I'll get it figured out soon and add some later on to this post.
Since I got back from Yanping and Moon Canyon, I’ve taken my final tests for the semester and moved into a new home stay. My final day of class is tomorrow, after which I’ll be taking a break from studying Chinese, although I may continue studying this summer with a tutor.
My new home stay is in another apartment complex not too unlike the one I stayed in at the beginning of the semester. This one, however, is located outside and to the west of campus. The apartment complex is off of a small side street with a row of small restaurants on the north side of the street, a park on the south side, and a middle school further down the road on the north side directly across from the park.
The street gets busy during the mornings and afternoons when students are dropped off at and picked up from school and during lunch time when students leave school for a little while to grab some lunch from one of the several food vendors that set up every day around that time. In the late afternoon and at night, however, everything slows down. A number of men congregate at the park and at a small bike repair stand on the street to play Chinese chess.As the men play a small group of women stand around in the vicinity, presumably waiting for their husbands. Although it seems that only a few people play ping pong around this time during the weekdays, the weekends see the public tables fill up with men and women.
At around 7 or 8 each night, a group of vendors set up what are called chuar (pronounced ch-w-are) stands along the street across from the small cluster of restaurants. Chuar is the word for the food that they make, which is basically a kebab that can have beef, lamb, chicken, tofu, or vegetables on it. The preferred cooking apparatus seems to be a couple of cinder blocks or some other sort of makeshift stand with a long, slender metal trough placed on top at waist-height. After you’ve picked out what kind and how many kebabs you want, they place a shovel-full or two of burning coals into the trough (if they aren’t already cooking someone else’s chuar), cook it for a few minutes, and it’s ready to be eaten. Each vendor also has a small outdoor dining area of tiny plastic chairs where groups of people will sit around eating chuar and drinking beer. At around the same time and a little further down the street you can walk to the center of the park and watch people rollerblading in the dark. Its proof that there are still parts of Beijing that you can actually relax in and escape the chaos that abounds elsewhere in the city.
I’m going to keep living here from now until mid-June, when I’ll move back over to campus and stay with a German classmate of mine. I’ve been teaching private tennis lessons to a couple Chinese girls, ages 7 and 9, three or sometimes four times a week and will continue doing so throughout the summer. I’ll also be continuing to teach English to a Chinese man in his thirties who may be traveling to the US for his work and so feels he needs to improve his English-speaking skills. Teaching him has been quite easy; so far all we have done is watch “Will and Grace”, a favorite of his, and pause every now and then so that I can explain the dialogue and any new vocabulary to him. Teaching the girls has been a bit more difficult, mostly because neither they nor their father speak English. But I’ve been able to get through that without too much trouble by learning a few essential tennis-related words. Aside from work, I’m planning on taking a few trips this summer and, like I said, possibly continuing to study Chinese. I also took a class this spring on the Erhu, a Chinese with two strings played with a bow, and may continue to take lessons this summer. Otherwise, I’ll be trying to stay out of the Beijing summer heat.