So as a necessary part of my job I have to read a whole bunch of news articles, and they usually have a bunch of links to random other articles at the bottom. One of these caught my eye on Friday, mainly because its headline read ‘Cheap American Beer PBR Marketed as High-End in China.’
Yeah, that PBR. The stuff you drink when you want to feel like a cheapskate or a hipster is selling for $44 a bottle in the great middle kingdom. For some perspective, the quilt and all those groceries I bought on Thursday came to a combined $38, so buying one PBR is a pretty substantial investment. For some more, consider that i make roughly $2.25 an hour and i’m pretty sure my wage is above the median. Needless to say i’m going to start poking around the liquor stores in my neighborhood in search of this stuff, if not to buy some then at least to take a picture to prove it exists. The article’s here: http://www.designtaxi.com/news/32525/Cheap-American-Beer-PBR-Marketed-as-High-End-in-China/
So in other news, it’s 4:00 on a Saturday and I have absolutely no plans. It’s a really weird vibe, actually. I got up around 11, played videogames with Connor for a while, fed myself and went grocery shopping, and now…
Yeah…
Plans for the rest of the day, as of right now: study some Chinese, eat dinner, sleep. Maybe this shouldn’t be as surprising at is. But since I got here, China has felt at least a little bit like it used to; I’ve always thought that life just moves faster here. I was busy constantly during the week, even without homework to worry about — with the commute on both ends, work + dinner covers 8am to 8pm, and at nights I’ve been either buying stuff to help me settle in, running errands, writing obnoxiously long blogs, that sorta thing. Last night I even got to go back over to Wudaokou and have a respectably fun night out with a bunch of English speakers (who unfortunately are now all cramming for finals) and things felt more or less like they did this summer. Sitting in my living room now, though, it’s becoming increasingly clear that things are pretty damn different.
Certainly, China hasn’t changed — so it must be that my attitude is starting to. Especially during the second half of this summer’s program, I remember this ever-present urge to go out and see everything there was to see. Time was limited, and hours in the dorm almost felt like hours wasted. With fifty friends and basically no homework, I’m sure any city can become one constant party but between the prices and the nightlife, Beijing was particularly conducive to the phenomenon. China was something to be beaten, a beast to be tamed, and if you weren’t out exploring it or at least getting drunk somewhere then you were missing out.
But now, I don’t know. It could be that I’ve got nine full weeks left, or it could be that it’s generally cold and dark outside. Maybe it’s because I don’t really have friends to share it with yet. It definitely isn’t like I’ve seen everything worth seeing, but at the end of the day for whatever reason that pressing need to go forth and conquer is conspicuously absent. China isn’t some big dirty disneyland anymore, it’s real life just like anywhere. Turns out that there isn’t anything inherent to the North Capital that means you can’t be lonely or bored; coming to terms with that means growing up a little bit, and doing that on demand is annoyingly difficult.
To be fair, I’m making a lot of adjustments all at once. I was already kinda reeling from ‘you are sorta a real person now, so you have to work and pay bills and stuff,’ and ‘you live alone for the first time in your life in a city where you know nobody, now go make friends with strangers’ without ‘you were in a bubble for three months and beijing’s not what you remember’ putting in its two cents, but now i’m just whining. Don’t read this wrong –I’m not depressed. I’m not even unhappy, and I sure as hell don’t plan on being a hermit for the next two months. But that’s not something that comes effortlessly anymore.
So I’ve got a request:
Help me out, please. Next time I’ve got a wide-open Saturday like this, what kinds of things should I do with it?
Answer in the comments: this serves two purposes. First, I’ll ostensibly get some suggestions regarding how to spend free time. Second, I *really* like getting comments on this thing because it in some way validates the time I spend writing it, so you’ll make me happy. Plus i have no idea if anyone actually reads this thing aside from my family, my plex roommates, and maybe jakob and chrissy, i think — so writing something below might give me a little better idea of who all actually reads the China Match.
If you comment I promise I won’t sell your email to anyone or whatever — if i could get rid of that requirement to comment then i would. you can just put like ‘x@x.com’ though and that’s just fine. If for some reason though you really don’t like commenting then shoot me suggestions for stuff to do next time we’re gchatting or skyping or whatever. Oh, and to clarify i’m not just looking for beijing-related stuff. could be any way to occupy time, social or no really. and even if you only see this post a month from now for whatever reason, suggestions will almost definitely still be welcome.
Thanks!