Coming to an end

I have just about a week left in Beijing- two months has NEVER flew by this quickly before for me. I have to say that I’m excited and a little sad about it, but like I have said before, I’m ready for the next chapter of my life. I spent the last week taking care of last minute things I wanted to do and finishing up some shopping. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to completely get everything done and I will explain why in just a little bit.

Chinese people are all about tea; they drink its morning, noon, and night, and it can be found in every restaurant or market. I’ve never been much into tea but when I’m living in a place so obsessed with it as China, I figured I might as well see what all the fuss is about. Last Wednesday I went to a tea making class with some friends where they told us some of the history behind tea including the types available, and how to prepare it (which is as easy as it sounds). There was also a tea tasting which I took a liking too. The particular type of tea were focused on was called Pu’er , pronounced ‘poor’, and is only grown in 4 provinces in China and nowhere else on the planet. I thought there would be some elaborate-complicated- traditional method to prepare the tea (as they made it seem) but the instructor literally poured boiling water into a teacup containing the Pu’er over and over again. Since the quality of the tea is so pure and contains no other ingredients, only a small handful of tea leaves were able to produce over 3 gallons of tea for the group; I myself must have had 1 gallon because I was in love with the tea. Unfortunately this indulgence didn’t agree with my stomach later that night, but I’ll stop there and spare you the image. I was going to purchase some of this rare tea for myself to bring back to the states but then I remembered that I don’t have the patience to do what she did at home, so I’ll just stick to Lipton instant-tea. It was a good experience and a fun way to spend my Wednesday evening for sure.

As I mentioned before, I planned on spending my Saturday doing some last minute gift shopping before it becomes too late. I went out with my friend Heather to my favorite market, the Silk market, which started off pretty good. By this point I am an expert in the fine art of bargaining with the Chinese locals so I was able to get everything I went for at very little cost. Despite being called “a shit head” by one merchant in particular, it was a good shopping day. While on our way to a local jewelry market the sky opened up and hurricane China hit before we knew what was happening. We managed to make it back to the apartments pretty quick luckily. The storm did not let up and Beijing was actually in a state of emergency within a couple hours. By the next morning Beijing experienced the worst rainstorm in the last six decades which left 37 people dead in its wake. Widespread flooding, building damage, and power outages were seen but thankfully my area, Shuangjing, did not get it too bad. What a way to end my weekend!

By this time next week I will have all my belongings packed and ready. I’m very excited to see my family, girlfriend, and best friend Jocelyn Tannenbaum (pool part, woot woot! and crispy tiger prong sandwiches FTW). What an experience this has been!