What's New?

This question was posed to me over the phone by a friend from home, and I didn’t know quite how to answer. Life in China brings new discoveries and experiences every day. Like yesterday, I picked up my new tailor made brown suit (which I like very much) from the Cotton Market. I have a cool, spunky tailor who pursuaded me to “maybe make-a two-a suit-a,” because the quality of her work is so good. I found a new Mongolian resteraunt in Beijing that I like, but I’ve enjoyed Mongolian food before, so that’s not really new – and there is much more to life than a new suit and Mongolian food.

I am well into my third month in this country and life has finally found a routine. The vast majority of my time is still spent working, which is becoming more interesting as I learn more about my trade and my foreman trusts me with more and more responsibility. Outside of work I am still going out and making the most of my time by shopping, biking, learning Chinese, running, and going out to resteraunts and clubs. I am still slacking in trying to pick up playing my guitar. I am always meeting new people and learning new things, but still hanging out with the same guys I see every day.

So what’s new... everything and nothing. How did I used to answer this question when I was back in the States? I took such-and-such test and did well, or met so-and-so and she’s pretty cool but totally uninterested, or maybe I did this-and-that with such-and-who organization or group of friends and it was really fun. So how do I answer this question now? I can’t talk about my work; I work and hang out with the same American guys every day and a bunch of dudes hanging out really isn’t that complicated or interesting to anyone else; the only organization I am part of right now is a Bible study, which is really cool, but I don’t think I will write all of our discussions on this blog or repeat them over the telephone. They did make me a cookie cake for my birthday on Thursday though, which was cool.

But there is more to life than cookie cake. For some of it you just have to be here, in fact, I wish you were here! There is so much here that is still exciting and new, though a bit of the novelty is wearing off after three months. I still love the food, still hate the pollution, still enjoy exploring the city.

So what’s new... just life! This is a new day and I am in China. Anything could happen and that’s what is so exciting. Right now I am sitting in this internet cafe, but in another hour I could be wandering down a houtong street, bartering for jewelry, reading a new book, trying to communicate with a taxi driver in Mandarin, touring the Forbidden City, or getting my hair cut by a Chinese barber (which is always an adventure!)

Hope you have a good day; mine rocks!