New adventures and reflecting on home

Traveling, for me, is an exercise in people watching and self-reflection. Much of my learning about a place comes from observing and absorbing what is happening around me and mentally comparing it to what I already know. I guess it’s a form of satisfying my cognitive dissonance about a new place, if you’re into that sort of thing. It requires thinking about home—in my case both Omaha, Nebraska and Hattiesburg, Mississippi—and things that could be done better at home and things that I can’t wait to leave here. On Monday, I traveled to the city center for lunch with friends. Yesterday, I visited the National Performing Arts Center and a grocery store. Both days brought experiences that forced me to think about my life at home.

The lunch on Monday was something I have looked forward to since arriving in Beijing. I met two friends near their office, and we walked to a restaurant for lunch. They spent a semester at Creighton University when I was a student there in 2014. I was really glad to see my friends again.

During lunch, we talked about the mistakes I have made since arriving and how those are similar to their first month in the U.S. We spent a long time telling funny stories about crossing the street in Beijing vs. crossing the street in Omaha. In China, cars have the right of way. I don’t know if this is official, but I know that they do not stop for pedestrians. Ever. My first week here, I nearly got run over by a bus because I assumed it would stop for me, the pedestrian. No. Not at all. In the Unites States, pedestrians have the right of way. Especially in the area around Creighton, drivers are pretty good at watching for people and waiting. My friends stood still at many intersections while drivers waved them forward and waited, often not so patiently. We laughed and laughed at our shared experiences, and I felt truly comfortable for the first time since my arrival in Beijing.

After lunch, we walked through a nearby public park. It was beautiful and full of people taking afternoon or lunch time walks. The grounds appeared perfectly maintained with trash bins and bathrooms available in the park. I remarked that the park was gorgeous and obviously well cared-for, and my friend told me that the regional and federal governments fund the maintenance of green spaces. On my trip back to campus on the subway, I thought about parks in Omaha and Hattiesburg that could be beautiful and widely used if a value for natural spaces were reflected in our budgets. That would be pretty amazing for our national parks in the U.S. As I rode, I daydreamed of public transportation to and from fabulously maintained green spaces. It was a lovely ride.

I spent part of this week sick. Again. It was my third round of actual illness since arriving in Beijing just 45 days ago. At home, I’m sick about once a year. This time, it was a 24-hour flu bug, so at least it was over quickly. By Wednesday morning, I felt good enough to start planning some future adventures. After firing up my VPN and Google, I searched for Beijing opera performances and discovered the National Performing Arts Center website. After fiddling with the online ticket purchase site that is only in Chinese, I decided that I should go to the physical box office to buy my ticket.

It has been hot here. Wednesday, it was 83 degrees. I debated about what to wear and decided that a sleeveless shirt was a good option. That was good for my physical comfort but damaging to my emotional well-being. Women wear long sleeves, even during the summer here. The staring and whispered comments that make me so uncomfortable were multiplied. I am fairly certain that two people took photos of me. This reinforced my hatred for U.S. websites like “People of Walmart” and our propensity to laugh at people when we think they aren’t paying attention. I will be really happy to return to the U.S. where I am not the great oddity that I am here.

After successfully purchasing my ticket for next Wednesday’s performance of the nationally commissioned opera, 170 Days in Nanking, I boarded the subway for my favorite supermarket. I needed wine. Needed. The subway provides time to think. Again, I envisioned all the cool performing arts stuff that could happen if we aligned national, state, and local budgets with those priorities and taxed the wealthy and corporations appropriately. Although Chinese public transportation may seem an odd place to have these thoughts, it works for me.

The grocery store, Carrefour, is one that I have written about before. It is chaos. I love it. After choosing snacks and wine, I meandered toward the checkout. A cashier saw me approaching and enthusiastically waved me over to her lane. She spoke English and guessed that I did too. Coupons printed after my transaction and she lit up as she asked me to wait and pointed at the printer. She carefully explained what each coupon was and told me to come back to see her. She always works on Wednesday afternoons. I said that I would return and complimented her on her sequined sneakers. It was a wonderful interaction to have after my self-conscious time on the subway.

China is made up of 1.4 billion people. Beijing is a city of 24 million people. There are people everywhere all the time. People work long hours many days of the week. I can find things to love and to dislike in nearly every corner of the city. My next adventure is to the famous Pearl and Silk markets. Haggling is the standard way to do business. I’m steeling myself to negotiate fiercely and walk away when we can’t meet in the middle. Being uncomfortable here is good for me. It forces me to think about the good and not so good things at home. So, I’ll keep going new places and try to ignore the subway and street-level staring.